Oil Fires, New Refineries, and a shift in the system

Well, Elk Point, South Dakota has the right idea. Recently, they voted to allow Hyperion, a Petroleum Company, to set up a fuel refinery in their city. The citizens of Union County voted in favor of the first new refinery in almost 35 years. It also means billions of dollars in the local economy in terms of construction and maintenance, and thousands of high-paying jobs. This is good news, as it will help to stimulate the economy and bring down rising fuel costs. Now, if we could just convince the citizens of the rest of the country to allow drilling and refining in more places, the world would change faster, and more money would flow into alternative fuel research. According to the Sioux City Journal, it would be using Tar Sands out of Alberta, refining 400,000 barrels a day. This will reduce demand for Iranian and Venezualan fuels as we shift towards more Iraqi sources.

On the bad side however, 2.4 million barrels of unleaded fuel where ignited in Kansas City last night after a set of wicked storms passed through. local price where at 3.90 a gallon at the time, leading to a loss of $9.36 million dollars. $9,360,000. That is a lot of cash lost. And that does not include the total stoppage by Magellan of all fuel flowing outwards, which meant a total cut off of fuel to the north, the shutting down of the factory, and the clean up of the area. It could have been a lot worse. Over in my house, we watched with fear, wondering whether or not two tanks nearby, each also holding a simil;ar amount of fuel would catch fire as well. Expect higher gas prices. At least it isn't as bad as the one time a squirrel got into an Oil Refinery and chewed up the wires in the control room. But it is still bad. Expect to see gas prices creep up as a result. Hopefully the news of a new refinery in South Dakota will help counteract it.

Meanwhile, news has hit Drudge that there are a group of highly organized Fuel Thieves who are going after Semi-Tankers full of Petroleum. This is gonna cause a rise in gas prices as well, and quite possibly the armed escort of fuel tankers, both on road and rails, to prevent such attacks. If you have perpetrated just such a robbery, remember, you are harming millions with these little antics of yours.

Just a warning folks, it is gonna get worse before it can get better. Petroleum Drills are only able to get around a third of the fuel out of the ground due to the nature of the drilling. this means an increased turning to the Tar Sands in Canada and the US, which are "Heavy" Crude, as opposed to the lower sulfur "Light" Crude that comes out in liquid form. As such, you will see higher refining and pump prices due to the need for extra refining to lower the sulfur content to meet current EPA Regulations on the formula of fuels.