US crude oil exports would lead to more efficient use of the country’s refineries, resulting in more gasoline and lower prices, a Resources for the Future issue brief concluded.
“With the increased efficiency of Western Hemisphere refinery operations that would come from lifting the ban, US prices for refined products will be reduced—even if world oil prices increase,” it said.
Most US refineries are configured to process heavy grade of crude and cannot process light crudes from the Bakkenand other US tight oil plays, said Stephen P.A. Brown, a visiting fellow at RFF and director of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’s Center for Business and Economic Research.
Brown and three others wrote the issue brief.
High levels of US light, sweet crude oil production, combined with a general ban on crude exports and transportation bottlenecks, have led to sharply lower prices for crude oil–but not products–in the Midwest because of processing configurations, they noted.
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Source: Nick Snow (www.ogj.com)
