'Round here brand E spent x million on a terminal upgrade, then shut it down a few months later. (it's only money, and they have a license to print their own) They're 100% throughput here, and probably save a pile of money by not paying terminal overhead. What must it cost to insure xx million of shore front gas & fuel storage these days? Ouch.
Fuel trivia fact #313 - Wish'd I'da bought Valero stock 20 years ago. In buying up old refineries then refurbishing them*, they've now become the single largest refiner in North America. I'd never heard of them until the 90s. They're now #15 on the Fortune 500 list - not too shabby for a company born in 1980.
http://www.valero.com/AboutUs/History.htm*No one is building new refineries in the US. When you think of who outside the oil patch could afford to build a few, but doesn't, it's fairly indicative of the way we're over-regulating ourselves back into the stone age. To buy existing refinery footprints like Valero did was fairly genius, in my opinion. Unless motor fuels hit $5 or $6 per gallon, I don't see our thirst for fuel declining anytime too soon. We began to learn our lesson after the embargo, then forgot soon after - not that I'm holier than anyone with a V8 Mustang in the driveway, although it does get 23 MPG on regular.
