[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by The Unabomber

I have read a number of times that gas companies have limited the number of refineries in order to keep their profits high, i'm no expert on it but doing a quick search on the internet i found many links related to this. If this is the case then how can anyone really defend these companies?

Here is a clip from the story

“Large oil companies have for a decade artificially shorted the [COLOR=#0000cc! important][FONT='Lucida Grande','Bitstream Vera Sans',Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][COLOR=#0000cc! important][FONT='Lucida Grande','Bitstream Vera Sans',Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]gasoline [/font][COLOR=#0000cc! important][FONT='Lucida Grande','Bitstream Vera Sans',Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]market[/font][/color][/font][/color][/color] to drive up prices,” said FTCR president Jamie Court, who successfully fought to keep Shell Oil from needlessly closing its Bakersfield, California refinery this year. “Oil companies know they can make more money by making less gasoline. Katrina should be a wakeup call to America that the refiners profit widely when they keep the system running on empty.”

Interesting read. I see what you are saying with the oil and gas use increasing as countries that used little of either earlier are now using more. If there was an affordable alternative then i would have no reason to dislike the oil and gas companies.

Ah yes the infamous 'memo's' of the 1990's. Back then 3-2-1 crack spreads were almost negative and refiners lost money. If you're losing money why should any individual company continue to produce at a loss? Why not shut down refineries to increase price into a profitable range? There's no law that says you have to produce at a certain level always. But in the example of Imperial Oil this last quarter they had a fire at their Nanitoke Ontario refinery and had to shut it down for weeks. Gas prices shot up through the roof due to lack of supply. Imperial had a bad quarter while their competitors raked in the profits of higher prices. No company is going to voluntarily miss out on profits to line their competitors pockets.