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johnnyringo117 t1_isxdjem wrote

Why can’t we just stop exporting as much oil as we currently do? Seems stupid to be sending a commodity out of the country that we could refine and use right here.

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Jeremycycles t1_isxniud wrote

The issue is that we can't refine enough domestic oil to keep up with capacity

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JohnnyUtah_QB1 t1_isxygpm wrote

We can, it's just more lucrative to sell it. A lot of US domestic oil is relatively lighter sweet crude, the kind of crude that is easy to refine. That means it's very in demand on global markets as that's the kind of crude most countries have the technology and infrastructure to handle.

So we sell that stuff off by the boatload, and in return we bring in heavy sour crude. Why? Because it's a pain in the ass to refine, and we're one of the few countries on earth with the infrastructure to do it. Since most other places can't handle it we get it for very cheap, cheap enough that the excess refining cost isn't an issue.

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Jeremycycles t1_isy0ebl wrote

We literally don’t have the refineries in place for light sweet crude oil. You can’t just change the plants to refine a different type. So no we don’t have the capacity to refine the crude oil from the United States.

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StThoughtWheelz t1_isyl652 wrote

The USA makes a large profit off of oil exports selling to friendly nations.

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Hrekires t1_isy0v33 wrote

It's a mix of the oil industry not being nationalized and under government control but also, not all oil is the same so we end up selling grades that we don't need and buying grades that we do.

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johnnyringo117 t1_isy2w6r wrote

Ah, this makes sense. So the US doesn’t have the right type of crude for making gasoline? I get it. Stupid dinosaurs.

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