High Gas Pump Price? Don't Blame OPEC?

I have searched for a link on this as well as a search on ATS. I've found nothing.

I saw a BP Oil commercial on TV yesterday. It stated that 60% of the oil/gas that America consumes is drilled right here in the US! It went on to say that only 9% comes from the Middle East. I can't remember the percentage, but we were getting more oil from Mexico (which is not an opec member) www.opec.org... than from the Middle East.

If this is true, why are our gas prices at the pump going up as soon as OPEC decides to reduce production and hike the price per barrel? None of this makes sense!

One major factor in the price of gas is the inability to refine more than we are currently refining. THis is because we have not built a new refinery in over 20+ YEARS.

It becomes a supply/demand issue when the demand out performs the supply side's ability the price goes UP...

Our refineries are at 96% operating capacity that leaves NO ROOM for additional supply to be made.

m...

Originally posted by Springer
Our refineries are at 96% operating capacity that leaves NO ROOM for additional supply to be made.

Okay, I understand that. However, the prices went up the moment OPEC (which is only 9% of our oil import) scales down their production and increases their price!

Also, only 46% of our gas price is based on the price for crude oil.

Do you see why none of this makes sense? I don't even have a theory on why this is happening.

If BP stated this, it is being disingenuous. This is probably a case of "lying with statistics". You may be able to take the total barrels of gas used in the U.S. and the total barrels of gas produced in the U.S. and come up with the following:

U.S. barrels of gas produced/U.S. barrels of gas used = 60%, BUT, that does not mean that 60% of the barrels of gas used actually DID originate from oil out of a U.S. oilwell.

See, you've got your tank farms and they just hold gas from all over the place and various companies. The tank doesn't know the difference between Saudi gas and U.S. gas, neither do the refineries...they just take it in the oil from multpile sources and spit the refined products out. By the way, we're refining a lot of imported oil, so here's another place BP's statement can be misleading...are they saying we're refining 60% of the gas we use? Okay, fine, that doesn't disconnect us from the fact the oil is coming from the mid-east.

If you want to buy made-in America gas from produced-in America oil...buy Conoco...and you'll still get mid-east oil-originated gas...but it won't be Conoco's fault, it will be the mixing of the product at the tank farms...but you'll be supporting a pure American-oil company.

[Edited on 5-17-2004 by Valhall]

According to the EIA, in 2002 the US produced 9.1 million barrels of petroleum per day domestically.
Imports were 11.4 million per day.
EIA.DOE.Gov (PDF)

2003 imports of Crude Petroleum:

Imports from OPEC countries: 1.75 billion barrels

Saudi Arabia 632.7 million
Venezuela 505.5 million
Nigeria 312.6 million
Iraq 164.9 million
Kuwait 76.8 million
Algeria 46.2 million
Indonesia 10.5 million
United Arab Emirates 3.4 million

Imports from Non-Opec countries 1.92 billion barrels

Mexico 565.4 million
Canada 546.7 million
Angola 142.7 million
Ecuador 51 million
Trinidad and Tobago 25.3 million
Congo (Brazzaville) 9.4 million
Brunei 6.5 million
Malaysia 6.5 million
Cameroon 5.8 million
Oman 14.4 million
Peru 3.9 million
China 3.8 million
Congo (Kinshasa) 3 million
Egypt 1 million

Census.gov

U.S. Proved Reserves of Crude Oil as of December 31, 2002 22,677 million barrels
EIA


[Edited on 17-5-2004 by AceOfBase]

I guess I got the answer to my question - no one knows!

www.quicken.com.../dowJones/20040517/ON200405170007000005.var&column=P0DFP

"Terrorism fears have resulted in a so-called terrorism premium that has pushed up crude prices as much as $5 to $10 a barrel over what supply and demand would suggest, some experts say.

The rise of crude-oil prices will be the focus of attention this week when the world's oil producers and consumers gather in Amsterdam for the International Energy Forum, a summit to discuss the market and how to better manage energy supply and demand. Among other things, OPEC and the International Energy Agency will be grappling with why prices have soared, even though supplies seem adequate."

Originally posted by AceOfBase
According to the EIA, in 2002 the US produced 9.1 million barrels od petroleum per day domestically.

Imports were 11.4 million per day.

Imports from OPEC countries: 1.75 billion barrels


Imports from Non-Opec countries 1.92 billion barrels

Thank You Ace! for all of those stats. It seems that we ARE getting less than half from OPEC and more from Non-OPEC. But that's no where near 60% drilled right here in the US!

I guess between your stats and the article I just posted, much the gas price seems to be related to terrorism threats and our low oil reserves.