by Jazz Shaw
Over the weekend, we looked at the alarming news about rolling blackouts that will be hitting multiple American states this summer and in future hot and cold seasons unless we manage to enhance our supply of electricity while modernizing and enhancing our ancient power grid. But electricity isn’t the only form of energy that will be failing to meet rising demands in the very near future. A recent set of reports from the Institute for Energy Research digs into the supply and demand figures for liquid fuels in the coming months and the news is not encouraging. The title of the report comes in the form of a worrisome question. Will there be enough diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline this summer?
Petroleum product shortages may be ahead as motorists, truck drivers, farmers and airlines are grappling with increasing demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Despite refiners focusing on diesel in lieu of gasoline this spring, a global diesel shortage is looming. Refiners are planning to spend the summer increasing jet fuel and diesel production instead of gasoline because refining oil into diesel or jet fuel is currently more profitable than making gasoline despite those fuels historically being the least profitable parts of the barrel. Currently, the profit margin on distillates is nearly $60 a barrel, while the margin to make gasoline is $34. As a result, it is unclear what the availability or price of gasoline will be this summer as Americans increase gasoline demand by taking vacations as school lets out.
Here are some of the highlights (or more accurately, lowlights) of the data behind this analysis. First of all, in recent years, seven American refineries, which formerly processed 806,000 barrels of oil per day, have gone offline. Some simply shut down while others are being converted to biofuels like ethanol to meet the demands of the environmental lobby. These losses have left the United States with 124 operating refineries. That is 10 percent fewer refineries for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel than we had in 2016, even as demand has continued to increase.
Our total operating refinery capacity dropped by 4.5 percent between 2020 and 2021 to 17.7 million barrels per day. That’s the lowest level we’ve seen since 2013. The current U.S. stockpile of diesel fuel is at a nearly two-decade low. The distilled fuel oil stockpile also declined precipitously. Meanwhile, the price of jet fuel has been rising due to supply and demand issues. Because the vast majority of food and other goods are all transported by a combination of aircraft and trucks (the vast majority of which use diesel), when those prices rise, the cost of everything goes up. And when the supply of those fuels falters, the supply chain shuts down. We already saw examples of this over the past six months. If something doesn’t change, it’s going to get worse.
All of this is taking place during the same period of time when President Biden has canceled three oil and gas lease sales.
These cancellations come when the national average price of regular gas hit an all-time high of $4.418 a gallon, according to AAA, and Americans are suffering under high inflation with the CPI increasing almost 15 percent since Biden took office. Under federal law, the Interior Department is required to adhere to a five-year offshore leasing plan, which was set to end at the end of June in the case of the affected leases. In January 2021, President Biden signed an executive order freezing all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
Far too many people who are understandably complaining about high gas prices and empty shelves in stores seem to assume that these fuel issues will be transitory in nature as they have been in the past and things will “go back to normal” before long. That’s simply not the case.
Democrats are TRYING to destroy the economy and nation. Prove me wrong.
Joe wants this. He just said we are doing a transition. He wants to go all electric. Which I’m not sure exactly what he means by that. Just cars or will that include trucks and trains? Which would be an astronomical cost if possible. The head of Toyota and Elon Musk have both said we can’t go all electric. So who do you believe two people who run successful car companies or the guy who has been wrong on every major issue for decades.
That statement was pretty much admitting the high energy prices are due to their self-imposed “transition” from fossil fuels to leftist-invested sources. Of course, we are transitioning from a relatively cheap and readily available energy source to one that, by and large, is expensive and in short supply and the more we depend upon it, the more expensive and shorter supply it will be because it is inadequate to begin with.
Not to mention that almost 30% of all oil use is non-fuel in nature. I can’t wait to see the enviros lose their plastic kayaks, paddles, raingear and tents and have to go back to wood and canvas. Canvas works for shoes too, which are made using oil now. You can’t build an EV without using oil for: tires, interior, fender wells, paint, wiring insulation, seals, glass, and much more.
Wood cases on cell phones, how cool is that. Same for computers.
I have a beautiful canvas tent, rubberized floor, these weenies wouldnt backpack much past their backyard with it. Custom made by a master tent maker with army duck canvas, its about 70 lbs not including the pipes and stakes. Took the kids camping often back in the day. Real camping where there was a lake for waterskiing. I did not want a cheesy nylon disposable where you had to worry if it rained.
Largest oil and gas producers made close to $100bn in first quarter of 2022
Great, good for capitolism, combined profits of many companies.How much did pfizer make?
The US government did not advertize for exxon, did not mandate you use gas or lose your job.
Now we’re starting to get an idea of just how big those profits will be. According to the Associated Press, Pfizer has told shareholders that it anticipates receiving about $33.5 billion in revenue this year from its COVID-19 vaccine, and earning a pre‐tax adjusted profit margin in the “high 20s” from those sales. Boosters, per a quoted expert, would bring in about $26 billion more (for both Pfizer and BioNTech, which split the proceeds) if they’re eventually approved for all Americans. This translates to about $9 billion in Pfizer profits this year (vaccines plus boosters), and maybe as much as $20 billion next year (about $7 billion for just boosters plus billions more for initial vaccine treatments). BioNTech, meanwhile, reported €3.9 billion (about $4.5 billion) in profits for the first half of 2021, and forecasts even higher sales for the next year.
You are an idiot
Thanks 😉
Yes. Crony Capitalist Democrats help their lobbies make money.
We know.
You never worry about the years when Big Oil loses money. You never worry about them working under a system that can pull the rug out from under them at any moment. To produce energy involves risk. Their profit is shown above. The govt just sticks its hand out and makes more off energy than the private companies.
How will government replace all that tax revenue when oil/gas isn’t used anymore?
They’ll have to tax the windmills, solar panels and charging stations.
The solar panel technology was stolen by china they are now made in china after driving all domestic production out of business and Biden is removing the tarriffs.
Cheap china crap that will never pay for itself before it becomes landfill material.
“Today, we mark 78 years since D-Day and honor those who answered duty’s call on the beaches of Normandy. We must never forget their service and sacrifice in defense of freedom, and we must strive every day to live up to the ideals they fought to defend.”
Posted on the Pretender’s twitter page at 9:27 PM June 6, 2022.
Perhaps he would like to explain why he forgot their service all together last year.
Natural gas also going into shortage. Gas pipelines are at capacity and Biden won’t approve any new ones. So, nat gas price will continue to rise. There’s no sense producing more gas if you can’t ship it to the customer.
This is ‘everything at once’ destruction on a scale never seen.