ah yes, I think we're discussion two different things rather than differing on opinion or fact.
I was focusing on west coast production, primarily california's since that is where I live and where we are feeling part of the brunt of this price escalation. This Bakersfield refinery accounts for 2% of our gas and 6% of the west's diesel. That's huge I'm thinking. It's at least a big enough chunk to sent reverbrations through the industry and prices.
The information I read approximates the following:
Quote:
The logical buyer for the Bakersfield refinery would be ChevronTexaco, which runs the adjacent Kern River oil field. The refinery grew up sipping Kern River heavy crude, and was owned over the years by successive companies with major holdings in Kern River.
The last of those was Texaco, which merged its West Coast refining and marketing operations with Shell's in the late 1990s.
When Texaco was bought by Chevron in 2001, the state Attorney General's office forced the merged company to sell off its interests in its jointly held refineries, including the Bakersfield plant.
That means ChevronTexaco can't buy the refinery unless a modification of the deal it negotiated with the attorney general is reached.
After the merger, ChevronTexaco also ended up with virtually the entire Kern River oil field.
Asked Friday, ChevronTexaco spokesman Ed Spaulding said the company already owns two large California refineries, one in Los Angeles and the other in the Bay area, and likely didn't need the Bakersfield plant.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1114927/posts
and a statement from Senator Ron Wyden here:
http://wyden.senate.gov/media/2004/0...4_ftc_gas.html
I honestly don't know the extent of field ownership. I was speculating that large corporations retain ownership. Given what I've studied regrading corporate interconnectedness, oil refineries and oil fields are possibly more closely intertwined than one might think.
But I admit I don't know the extent of this for a fact and haven't taken the initiative to research it all out. I can't find the article I read last week but it either stated or implied that this thorny ownership web is prevelant throughout California.
Thanks for the discussion.