It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Texas will always be the second largest state in the Union.
originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: face23785
They could but it would be expensive.
There's a reason new refineries haven't been built in decades.
www.usnews.com...
originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: face23785
I think invading Iraq was more to maintain power over the pipeline that goes through it. Also there's a lot of oil. Saddam just didn't have the tech to get it. We will see what happens in a decade or so with Iraq.
Also. I work with two Iraqis they fled a few years before 9/11, and they both worked in the oil fields as welders. I should ask them about their experiences.
originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: face23785
Not with today's EPA regulations.
It's cheaper to ship it offshore.
originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: face23785
They could but it would be expensive.
There's a reason new refineries haven't been built in decades.
originally posted by: CrawlingChaos
The way a refinery works is by separating the different aspects of the oil. This is done using heat, and towers with weir plates that allow the different viscosities, thickness/compositions to separate from the starting volume. This is the simple explanation… Heavier industrial aspects settle towards the bottom of the weir plated tower, engine oil for example. The lighter aspects separate towards the top of the tower, gasoline.
The essential difference to refine the two main types is how to reduce the amount of Sulphur. Sour crude has a higher sulphur content that needs processed and removed before going to the refining tower.
Basicly sour cost more, because it requires a couple of extra steps that sweet crude does not. Also the end product is a big factor in determining which to refine, sweet crude tends to be turned into gasoline easily. Sour crude usually refined to industrial uses and diesel.
My point is, the U.S. can easily refine either. But it's much more marketable to produce gasoline from sweet, and then ship it out from U.S. ports.