IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joecas/v20y2019ics1703494919300714.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The U.S. crude oil refining industry: Recent developments, upcoming challenges and prospects for exports

Author

Listed:
  • Ruble, Isabella

Abstract

In 2018 the U.S. petroleum refining industry is the largest and most advanced in the world. Continuous consolidations and investments in complex refinery additions have allowed this industry to remain competitive and the shale oil revolution has contributed to the U.S. becoming a net exporter of refined petroleum products in 2008. In light of current and forecasted changes in refined petroleum product demand and worldwide refining capacity additions, the U.S. petroleum refining industry faces new challenges. This paper provides an in-depth study of this industry, presenting past trends, its current state and the effects that a changing U.S. crude oil production has on refiners. Furthermore, a scenario analysis is used to forecast future production levels and the volumes of major refined products available for exports over the years 2017–2032. The competitiveness of current U.S. gasoline and diesel exports is evaluated and forecasted gasoline and diesel demand in current export markets is compared to available export volumes. Major challenges facing refiners by changing market conditions and new regulatory rules are discussed. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruble, Isabella, 2019. "The U.S. crude oil refining industry: Recent developments, upcoming challenges and prospects for exports," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecas:v:20:y:2019:i:c:s1703494919300714
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeca.2019.e00132
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1703494919300714
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeca.2019.e00132?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lutz Kilian, 2016. "The Impact of the Shale Oil Revolution on U.S. Oil and Gasoline Prices," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(2), pages 185-205.
    2. Kaminski, Vincent, 2014. "The microstructure of the North American oil market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(S1), pages 1-10.
    3. Kendix, Michael & Walls, W.D., 2010. "Oil industry consolidation and refined product prices: Evidence from US wholesale gasoline terminals," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3498-3507, July.
    4. Zavaleta, Armando & Walls, W.D. & Rusco, Frank W., 2015. "Refining for export and the convergence of petroleum product prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 206-214.
    5. Severin Borenstein & Ryan Kellogg, 2014. "The Incidence of an Oil Glut: Who Benefits from Cheap Crude Oil in the Midwest?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 35(1), pages 15-34, January.
    6. David W. Meyer & Christopher T. Taylor, 2018. "The Determinants of Plant Exit: the Evolution of the U.S. Refining Industry," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 429-448, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Kai-Hua & Liu, Lu & Li, Xin & Oana-Ramona, Lobonţ, 2022. "Do oil price shocks drive unemployment? Evidence from Russia and Canada," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    2. Ruble, Isabella & Powell, John, 2021. "The Brent-WTI spread revisited: A novel approach," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    3. Manfroni, Michele & Bukkens, Sandra G.F. & Giampietro, Mario, 2022. "Securing fuel demand with unconventional oils: A metabolic perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    4. Ghoddusi, Hamed & Moghaddam, Hussein & Wirl, Franz, 2022. "Going downstream – An economical option for oil and gas exporting countries?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Balashova, Svetlana & Serletis, Apostolos, 2020. "Oil prices shocks and the Russian economy," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stanislav Anatolyev & Sergei Seleznev & Veronika Selezneva, 2018. "Formation of Market Beliefs in the Oil Market," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp619, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    2. Christiane Baumeister & Lutz Kilian & Thomas K. Lee, 2017. "Inside the Crystal Ball: New Approaches to Predicting the Gasoline Price at the Pump," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 275-295, March.
    3. Manuel Frondel and Marco Horvath, 2019. "The U.S. Fracking Boom: Impact on Oil Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    4. Caporin, Massimiliano & Fontini, Fulvio & Talebbeydokhti, Elham, 2019. "Testing persistence of WTI and Brent long-run relationship after the shale oil supply shock," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 21-31.
    5. Ederington, Louis H. & Fernando, Chitru S. & Lee, Thomas K. & Linn, Scott C. & Zhang, Huiming, 2021. "The relation between petroleum product prices and crude oil prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Ederington, Louis H. & Fernando, Chitru S. & Hoelscher, Seth A. & Lee, Thomas K. & Linn, Scott C., 2019. "A review of the evidence on the relation between crude oil prices and petroleum product prices," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Shaun McRae, 2017. "Crude Oil Price Differentials and Pipeline Infrastructure," NBER Working Papers 24170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Hilde C. Bjørnland & Frode Martin Nordvik & Maximilian Rohrer, 2021. "Supply flexibility in the shale patch: Evidence from North Dakota," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 273-292, April.
    9. Lutz Kilian, 2017. "How the Tight Oil Boom Has Changed Oil and Gasoline Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 6380, CESifo.
    10. Bravo Caro, José Manuel & Golpe, Antonio A. & Iglesias, Jesús & Vides, José Carlos, 2020. "A new way of measuring the WTI – Brent spread. Globalization, shock persistence and common trends," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    11. Monge, Manuel & Gil-Alana, Luis Alberiko, 2021. "Spatial crude oil production divergence and crude oil price behaviour in the United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    12. Reinhard Ellwanger & Hinnerk Gnutzmann & Piotr Śpiewanowski, 2023. "Cost Pass-Through with Capacity Constraints and International Linkages," Staff Working Papers 23-16, Bank of Canada.
    13. Qiao, Sen & Guo, Zi Xin & Tao, Zhang & Ren, Zheng Yu, 2023. "Analyzing the network structure of risk transmission among renewable, non-renewable energy and carbon markets," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 206-217.
    14. Gevorkyan, Arkady & Semmler, Willi, 2016. "Oil price, overleveraging and shakeout in the shale energy sector — Game changers in the oil industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 244-259.
    15. Yip, Pick Schen & Brooks, Robert & Do, Hung Xuan & Nguyen, Duc Khuong, 2020. "Dynamic volatility spillover effects between oil and agricultural products," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Robert Gmeiner, 2019. "Regulatory capture in the US petroleum refining industry," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(4), pages 459-498, December.
    17. Mastroeni, Loretta & Mazzoccoli, Alessandro & Quaresima, Greta & Vellucci, Pierluigi, 2021. "Decoupling and recoupling in the crude oil price benchmarks: An investigation of similarity patterns," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    18. Lips, Johannes, 2018. "Debt and the Oil Industry - Analysis on the Firm and Production Level," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181504, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Bastianin, Andrea & Galeotti, Marzio & Manera, Matteo, 2014. "Forecasting the oil–gasoline price relationship: Do asymmetries help?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(S1), pages 44-56.
    20. Xie, Qichang & Luo, Chao & Cong, Xiaoping & Wang, Xu, 2024. "Volatility connectedness and its determinants of global energy stock markets," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(2).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joecas:v:20:y:2019:i:c:s1703494919300714. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-economic-asymmetries/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.