WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members in the House and Senate, led by Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, sent a letter this week to President Trump urging him to address issues of unfair market access for U.S. energy companies doing business in Mexico. Chet Thompson, President and CEO of AFPM, echoed these calls with the following statement.
U.S. refineries are the most complex in the world, allowing them to extract more value out of each barrel of oil than any other refining system globally. This competitive edge is made possible by access to global markets.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson issued the following statement on the agreement finalized today to end the OPEC+ oil price war.
Governor Gavin Newsom continues to blame fuel refiners for California’s highest-in-the-nation fuel prices. He couldn't be more wrong. The problem and solution to much of California’s fuel price challenge can be found in Sacramento policy. Take a look to better understand the role of policy in regional price differences, why it’s inaccurate to equate “margins” or “refinery cracks” with “profits,” and why windfall profit taxes are a known policy failure.
AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson issued the following statement regarding President Biden’s suggestion that a Windfall Profit Tax should be considered to address fuel supplies and prices: “Once again, the President is more worried about political posturing before the Midterms than he is about advancing energy policies that will actually deliver for the American people."
AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson issued the following statement: "AFPM applauds the United States Trade Representative (USTR) for elevating this important matter. Mexico’s policies toward American energy companies need to be addressed in the spirit of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA). American refiners have made significant investments in Mexico-based operations, jobs and infrastructure and we want our trade relationships with Mexico to remain healthy and mutually beneficial.”
Some policymakers are rumored to be considering a ban on crude oil and/or U.S. refined product exports. This would be a mistake. Ending U.S. crude oil or refined product exports won’t help U.S. consumers by lowering prices at pump. In fact, it could make things even worse. Let’s take a closer look at how a refined product export ban would affect gasoline and diesel supplies and, thus, prices in the United States and around the world.
Refinery utilization, measures how much crude oil refineries are processing or “running” as a percentage of their maximum capacity. It tells us roughly how much of our refining muscle is being put to work manufacturing fuel. American refineries are running full-out, at about 95% of total capacity, contributing more fuel—gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, etc.—to the global market than any other country. In fact, U.S. refineries process more crude oil every day than the United States produces, and we make more finished fuels than the United States consumes.
The return of fuel demand to pre-pandemic levels and the slower rebound of crude oil and fuel production has created concerns about whether supplies of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel will be sufficient to meet global demand. U.S. refineries are up and running at near maximum utilization. Other major refining countries, for a variety of reasons, have not kept pace bringing their facilities back into operation or resuming sales of fuel to the market. As a result, wholesale fuel prices have increased and so have refinery “crack spreads."