Venezuela, oil imports and the Catlettsburg refinery
We know $3 gasoline will be here before Memorial Day, but could it go even higher?
Venezuela is taking control of its biggest oil field from the international companies that have developed them.
Chavez is worried about keeping the big oil companies as minority partners. Industry experts say the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, doesn't have the expertise to transform Orinoco's tar-like crude into marketable petroleum.
But multinationals pumping oil elsewhere in Venezuela, one of the leading suppliers of oil to the United States, submitted to state-controlled joint ventures last year because they were reluctant to abandon the profitable operations.
Gasoline prices are driven by world news. If a truck driver gets the hiccups in Kuwait, the pump price goes up 10 to 20 cents a gallon in Huntington. We'll have to see what happens Thursday, when prices usually jump, if not before.
For what it's worth, Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of imported oil to the United States, after Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. However, our imports from Venezuela have been trending down. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, American refiners imported about 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela in January. Except for a three-month period in late 2002 and early 2003, that was the smallest amount imported from Venezuela in at least 14 years.
According to the EIA, the Marathon Oil refinery at Catlettsburg, Ky., did not use any Venezuelan oil in February. About 49 percent of the imported oil refined at Catlettsburg came from Saudia Arabia, with 26 percent from Nigeria, 22 percent from Kuwait and 2 percent from Canada. Those percentages are based on preliminary reports for February. Final numbers were to have been released last Friday but have been delayed.
In January, the refinery's imports came from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Venezuela is taking control of its biggest oil field from the international companies that have developed them.
Chavez is worried about keeping the big oil companies as minority partners. Industry experts say the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, doesn't have the expertise to transform Orinoco's tar-like crude into marketable petroleum.
But multinationals pumping oil elsewhere in Venezuela, one of the leading suppliers of oil to the United States, submitted to state-controlled joint ventures last year because they were reluctant to abandon the profitable operations.
Gasoline prices are driven by world news. If a truck driver gets the hiccups in Kuwait, the pump price goes up 10 to 20 cents a gallon in Huntington. We'll have to see what happens Thursday, when prices usually jump, if not before.
For what it's worth, Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of imported oil to the United States, after Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. However, our imports from Venezuela have been trending down. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, American refiners imported about 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela in January. Except for a three-month period in late 2002 and early 2003, that was the smallest amount imported from Venezuela in at least 14 years.
According to the EIA, the Marathon Oil refinery at Catlettsburg, Ky., did not use any Venezuelan oil in February. About 49 percent of the imported oil refined at Catlettsburg came from Saudia Arabia, with 26 percent from Nigeria, 22 percent from Kuwait and 2 percent from Canada. Those percentages are based on preliminary reports for February. Final numbers were to have been released last Friday but have been delayed.
In January, the refinery's imports came from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
posted Jim Ross @11:54 AM 
