Re: oil refining conspiracy?

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

I'm always ready to embrace the idea of corporate collusion (we don't
call it conspiracy in micro economics.  Actually we don't call it
collusion, either) but although it crossed my mind when I heard about
the Valero fire I don't see why they'd bother under these
circumstances.  In fact they might rather keep from offending the public
further, rather than inflame another refinery.

Gene Coyle

Jim Devine wrote:

> OTOH, maybe stress on supply causes accidents?
>
> the CA electricity "deregulation" seemed to deliberately create the
> incentive to manipulate supply a la Enron. Is the current oil market
> that way?
>
> On 8/9/05, michael perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> > This sounds like the California electricity scam?  Could it be true?
> >
> > Speculating without facts:
> >
> > More Outages Hit U.S. Refineries
> >
> > Recent Incidents Heighten
> > Concerns About Capacity;
> > Oil Nears $64 a Barrel
> >
> > Fresh upsets at U.S. refineries over the weekend extended an unusual
> > spate of outages that has raised concerns about fuel supplies and
> > contributed to a rise in oil prices on the New York futures market to
> > nearly $64 a barrel.
> >
> > The rash of incidents over the past three weeks involves major
> > processing units and four fires at a time when refiners are trying to
> > run flat out to meet demand. The outages have put added stress on
> > already-constrained U.S. fuel-production capacity.