Some interesting oil industry statistics - refining & transportation
©1997-2009 Gibson Consulting
 | By Richard Gibson:
What Things Are Made Of
The story of America's dependency
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Page index: Refinery profit margins • Refineries • Refineries by state
Refinery profits
Refinery profit margins are highly sensitive to both the price of oil (their buying price) and the price of gasoline and other products (their selling price). While the prices of products are closely related to the price of the oil that is used to create them, it is not always a straight-line relationship.
The following links provide evidence that refiner profits have ranged from as much as $33 per barrel to as low as a loss of $10 per barrel within a two-year period (2007-2008). Overall, the long-term average profit for refining companies in the US is about $6.32 per barrel (15¢ per gallon of product; 42 gallons per barrel).
$5.03 per barrel (Gulf Coast, March 2004)
$12.45 per barrel May 2008
Long term average = $6.32 per barrel • Dec 2008 US = -$6.70 per barrel (loss)
May 2008 (CA) 19¢/gal = $7.98/bbl
May 2007 = $33 per barrel; Nov 2008 = negative (loss) $10/bbl
Oil Refineries
| In 2003 the four largest U.S. refining companies controlled a little more than 40 percent of the nation’s refining capacity. In contrast, the top four companies in the auto manufacturing, brewing, tobacco, floor coverings and breakfast cereals industries controlled between 80 percent and 90 percent of the market. [Source]
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| OIL REFINING QUIZ |
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What company is the largest oil refiner in the US?
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The following information on active oil refineries comes from the Energy Information Administration. Total in the US is 149 refineries. For more specifics, such as refinery owner and capacity of individual refineries, go to This Page, click on a state, and then click on "petroleum overview" on the state page. The list is in order of total capacity in 2005. States not listed, such as New York, Florida, and Arizona, do not have any refineries. EIA Information on individual refineries.
US total refining capacity = 17,125,000 barrels of oil per day. Of this, 19.5
gallons per barrel, or about 44% (the most that can be made) becomes gasoline:
7,535,000 barrels of gasoline, times 42 gallons per barrel = 316,470,000
gallons of gasoline capable of being refined each day. Although most refineries
are operating at near capacity (say 95% to 98% of capacity), any shutdown (hurricane
or otherwise) obviously affects this total. In March 2005, US gasoline consumption
was 320,500,000 gallons per day. You do the math.
UPDATE: According to this
EIA page, US gasoline consumption in 2004 averaged 382,400,000 gallons
per day - meaning we must import almost 66 million gallons of gasoline each and every day, in addition to imported crude oil.
| STATE | Number of Refineries | Capacity, barrels per day, 2005 |
| Texas | 23 | 4,628,000 |
| Louisiana | 17 | 2,773,000 |
| California | 21 | 2,005,000 |
| Illinois | 4 | 896,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | 770,000 |
| Washington | 5 | 616,150 |
| New Jersey | 4 | 615,000 |
| Ohio | 4 | 551,400 |
| Oklahoma | 5 | 484,961 |
| 10. Indiana | 2 | 433,000 |
| Alaska | 6 | 373,000 |
| Mississippi | 4 | 364,800 |
| Minnesota | 2 | 335,000 |
| Kansas | 3 | 296,200 |
| Kentucky | 2 | 227,500 |
| Montana | 4 | 181,200 |
| Tennessee | 1 | 180,000 |
| Delaware | 1 | 175,000 |
| Utah | 5 | 167,350 |
| 20. Wyoming | 5 | 152,000 |
| Hawaii | 2 | 147,500 |
| Alabama | 2 | 113,500 |
| New Mexico | 3 | 112,600 |
| Colorado | 2 | 87,000 |
| Arkansas | 2 | 76,800 |
| Michigan | 1 | 74,000 |
| Virginia | 1 | 58,600 |
| North Dakota | 1 | 58,000 |
| Wisconsin | 1 | 33,000 |
| 30. West Virginia | 1 | 19,400 |
| Nevada | 1 | 1,707 |
Compiled by Dick Gibson, Gibson Consulting, 301 N. Crystal St., Butte, MT 59701
Want to know more?
Gibson Consulting recommends: Read The Prize, by Daniel Yergin. |
©1997-2009 Gibson Consulting
Background image of drilling well in Utah in 1981 © 2000 by Dick Gibson