Do you know how fractional distillation works? Fuel doesn’t compete for oil. Fuel, bitumen and other heavy fractions is the main reason we distill oil. Those ar

Do you know how fractional distillation works? Fuel doesn’t compete for oil. Fuel, bitumen and other heavy fractions is the main reason we distill oil. Those are the hydrocarbons that are actually hard to make. The light fractions used in plastics fall out of that process. It’s not a competition, it’s a synergy. If they’re going to turn ALL the oil into plastics, at the very least they have to have more processing steps. It’s not hard but it will require bigger refineries, in other words, more expensive plastics. Also, they will be competing with bio-plastics and other alternatives, that will probably get more favourable regulations in many countries. Plastics won’t go away. Even if we don’t pump for oil it’s not very hard to make the same plastics from biological hydrocarbons.