Someone else on these boards had pointed this out long ago: If the refineries are, for one reason or another, a bottleneck, then the price of crude should fall as crude backs up in the marketplace. The price of REFINED petroleum products would become dear because the refineries are unable to produce enough.
However, news stories like the one posted today state that th reason crude is rising in price is because of refinery problems. Refinery problems should make the price of crude FALL. It don't make sense.
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"Crude oil had the biggest gain in almost six months, topping $54 a barrel in New York, as refinery malfunctions raised concern that refiners won't produce enough gasoline to meet peak demand this summer.
U.S. refineries have increased operations to about 95 percent of capacity as they struggle to meet growing demand. Royal Dutch/Shell Group shut two units at its Deer Park, Texas, refinery on May 30. Analysts were divided on whether a report tomorrow will show that oil supplies rose or fell last week after an unexpected supply decline the week ended May 20."





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