Start the conversation
Comment on This Story
Or to contact Money Morning Customer Service, click here.
The primary summer driving season is over, and Labor Day, the last vacation weekend of the season, is fast approaching.
Travelers are winding down their end-of-summer vacation plans as we head into the autumn, and traffic between cities is lightening.
Normally, this time of year produces a decline in retail gasoline prices as the driving season ends and autumn and winter hibernation begins. And refineries are already switching primary production cuts from retail gasoline to produce more low-sulfur heating oil for the upcoming colder months.
But this summer, you may have noticed an uncomfortable anomaly; gas prices this summer in my home state of sunny Florida have reached three-year highs of $2.84 per gallon.
Your mileage may have varied from mine depending on where you live, but you have probably experienced something similar.
In this 2018 season, the expected adjustment downward is not kicking in as in years past.
So, why are we witnessing an unusual increase in costs at the pump?
There are two overarching reasons, each resulting from how available refinery capacity is being utilized...
Why End-of-Summer Travelers Are Seeing Higher Gas Prices
First and foremost, these days, processors are having to make more difficult decisions in apportioning refinery cuts - essentially the decisions that determine the mix of finished oil products. There is simply less leverage than there has been in the recent past, and that has led to a constriction in product supply.
Yes, gasoline demand in the ending summer period has come in a bit higher than average, while the ability to meet low-sulfur distillates (i.e. diesel and heating oil) has been more problematic than in the past. This likewise surfaces in the availability of naphtha, a refined product that is reinjected into the process, resulting in high-octane gasoline.
But there is another related matter of interest to travelers emerging as well: The pressure in the two primary distillates has introduced another concern further up the refinery cut in the cost of high-end kerosene production - better known as jet fuel.
Are You Willing to Ignore a Massive Payday Opportunity? When all is said and done, a massive windfall may be in play for ground-floor investors who move on this tiny oil play. Learn more...
The combination of all these production factors means any market resilience for gas demand will be facing a collision with stubborn alternative levels of demand for other products.
Even on its own, this pressure facing refineries would be enough to raise gasoline prices higher than recent years as we move into the fourth quarter.
But there is another factor to consider that has an even greater global impact...
Reliance on American Crude Leads to Global Domination
For several years now, U.S. refineries have led the world in the export of oil products.
With the closure of less efficient, smaller, and more limited-in-production-range plants in Europe and elsewhere, more parts of the world have become dependent upon the availability of American processed volume.
This is the reason why some countries known to provide large amounts of crude oil exports, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have been investing in upgrading refinery capacity to allow for the more expensive products at the higher end of the refinery scale.
About the Author
Dr. Kent Moors is an internationally recognized expert in oil and natural gas policy, risk assessment, and emerging market economic development. He serves as an advisor to many U.S. governors and foreign governments. Kent details his latest global travels in his free Oil & Energy Investor e-letter. He makes specific investment recommendations in his newsletter, the Energy Advantage. For more active investors, he issues shorter-term trades in his Energy Inner Circle.
