Chevron's Pascagoula refinery was built specifically to handle crude from Venezuela, but could get by on heavy crude from Mexico mixed with other crude.
After Chevron's Pascagoula refinery was a huge success, the Koch brothers wanted to do something similar, but their Midwest refineries had no access to crude from either Venezuela or Mexico.
The Kochs hoped they could build a Keystone Pipeline to bring crude oil from Canada to Illinois, where they could also build Pascagoula-class refineries in Illinois to handle heavy crude. So they cranked up their political lobbying program claiming their interest was America's interests - maybe.
If the Koch and other Midwest refineries lose access to Canadian heavy crude, they're as fucked as all of their Midwest customers, as the Koch organization has made abundantly clear to the witless drones inhabiting the Trump administration. Tariffs would have seen the Midwest paying exorbitant prices for gasoline and jet fuel - so Trump TACOed.
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The Keystone pipeline was later extended from Illinois to Cushing, Oklahoma and finally extended to Port Arthur Texas.
With this extension completed, Chevron's Pascagoula refinery purchases Canadian crude via tanker from Port Arthur, Texas when the crude from Venezuela is not available. What about the Reverse?
The Keystone pipeline has a lot of capacity from Canada to Illinois, but a lot less capacity from Illinois to Texas. Reversing the flow from Port Arthur to Illinois via Cushing, Oklahoma would require a huge build-out of pipeline capacity and pumping stations.
Likewise the Alberta to Vancouver crude pipeline will need a similar large increase in capacity to carry Canadian crude away from America to global markets, which PM Mark Carney has committed to in Alberta, whilst wearing a cowboy hat !
These two five-year to eight-year projects would be a bonus for pipeline builders and will increase fuel costs for consumers and maybe provide a payoff for some tiny little person's ego, if they were still alive at that time.
But let's be clear . . . the oil and gas industry has never needed the tantrums and chaos introduced by mentally ill outsiders. |
