The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) has expressed concern about the impact that steel and aluminum tariffs would have on prices at the pump, infrastructure investment and jobs.
One of America’s major strengths when it comes to the economy and global trade is our petrochemical industry, which produces the building blocks used in manufacturing supply chains across the globe.
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.
The United States is the now largest producer of crude oil and has the largest, most complex and most efficient refining industry in the world. Yet two of our most important oil trading partners are those that share our borders: Canada and Mexico.
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.
AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson and API President and CEO Mike Sommers sent a letter to President Biden responding to recent letters the Administration sent to major U.S. fuel refiners suggesting that these companies, their workforces and facilities throughout the country aren’t doing their part to bring fuel to the market and lower energy costs for consumers.
We are surprised and disappointed by the President’s letter. Any suggestion that U.S. refiners are not doing our part to bring stability to the market is false. We would encourage the Administration to look inward to better understand the role their policies and hostile rhetoric have played in the current environment.
The United States has the most complex and efficient refining industry in the world, but we also have less refining capacity than we used to. Where the issue of refining capacity is concerned, it’s important to understand what refining capacity is, why we’ve lost capacity in the United States and how policies can advance the competitiveness of our refineries in the global market.
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.
