The Barrel attended a conference call held for bloggers Wednesday by the American Petroleum Institute, with senior officials discussing legislative climate, refining and import levels, among other topics.
Red Cavaney, president of the API, spoke about potential price-gouging legislation and the legislative climate in Washington DC. The first message he had, was that refinery production is very higher, and there is no evidence that refiners are witholding supplies.
He added that in fact they have been expanding capacity, with "the equivalent of 8 new refineries in the pipeline".
The government is sending mixed signals, which makes it harder to attract investment, Cavaney said.
Rayola Dougher also spoke, and cautioned that price-gouging laws would likely make it more difficult to attract enough supply from overseas.
She and Ron Planting, the API's statistics manager, were questioned regarding refinery maintenance, and mentioned that attracting skilled labor was becoming a greater challenge, as well as the pure costs of steel and other materials. There is great competition from the oil sands industry as well.
The API representatives did not see the benefit to states suspending gasoline taxes, saying that it would mask real supply/demand issues. While it would take a few pennies off consumers' bills in summer, it would cut into the states' road repair funds. "Let consumers know whwat the price is, and they will moderate their demand accordingly."
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