WASHINGTON (Sputnik) —When asked whether the United States will boost its oil exports under the new administration, McConnell stated, “Yes.”
“The European refineries in Western Europe are all obvious targets for light sweet crude from places like the Bakken where that exporting will occur,” he said. “I see Europe and European refineries as probably the more likely place for that crude because the refineries are configured much more properly for that kind of crude to be able to handle it and successfully process.”
McConnell explained that much of what’s developed in the United States is a lighter sweeter crude than what the country typically puts in the refineries in the Gulf coast, and that is why the light sweet crudes will migrate to places where refining markets are more suitable for that.
“Those refineries [in the Gulf coast] will continue to operate, many of them on heavy sour feedstock,” he added. “There are a few refineries on the East coast of the United States that have been underutilized for the past five to ten years and have not really grown, or there’s not been investment made in them. That’s changing in big way.”
McConnell pointed out that there is a huge difference in attitude in the Trump Administration that will be both developing energy resources while striving for environmental responsibility.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, in 2015, the United States exported 4.7 million barrels of oil per day to 147 countries, mostly in the form of petroleum products. In the same year, OPEC member Saudi Arabia exported 1.1 million barrels per day of petroleum products and 7.1 million barrels per day of crude oil.
