[lawnchair]

from the AP

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Energy Information Administration reported that gasoline stocks rose an average of 400,000 barrels last week, the first increase in 13 weeks. But a closer inspection showed much of that increase was due to a 1.1-million barrel increase in inventories on the West Coast only, not across the country.

[DantesPeak]

There was an unusual increase in West coast crude imports the last week, which may have help increase refinery output on the West coast. California has been pushing refiners to defer maintenance and produce at maximum output.

Meanwhile in the rest of the country, demand exceeds supply. This is particulary worrying because demand actually fell the last few weeks. What will the Memorial Day holiday bring?


Simmons made a very good presentation on the West Coast markets, which we talked about here - Matt Simmons on UCTV channel right now thread

Not sure if it will be shown again or is on Youtube, maybe someone can provide a link.

Anyway Simmons says because of the West's relaince on falling output from Alaska, and it's relative geographical isolation, it's heading for trouble.

Some possible good news is that the Saudis are planning on building storage in Japan, which may become available to the West if needed. This appears to be a few years away.

[shortonoil]

DantesPeak said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')alifornia has been pushing refiners to defer maintenance and produce at maximum output.

[Newsseeker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shortonoil', '[')b]DantesPeak said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')alifornia has been pushing refiners to defer maintenance and produce at maximum output.

[pea-jay]

We really are isolated out here. And here in CA we already import gas to meet our regular demands so its not like we have much to export. Still it is doable via ship. There was talk of that after Katrina, sending West Coast gas over to the Gulf. Dont know if they did, but you can bet if the price/supply imbalance got too extreme you can bet they would. After Katrina our gas spiked the least compared to the other regions.

Still, our refineries are vulnerable to all of the usual run of the mill problems and misshaps plus the occasional power grid emergency (the 2005 outages knocked out five refineries in LA for the better part of a day). And oh yeah, they would almost certainly go offline after a major quake. This wasnt a big problem in 1989 and 1994 when demand wasnt so close to production. It would be huge problem today.