U.S. refinery freeze hikes 'dependency'

NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A 25-year-old inability to permit new refineries in the United States is making the nation more dependent on foreign facilities.

In a manner reminiscent of how U.S. dependency on foreign crude oil developed, the United States is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil refined from crude oil, the feedstock that refineries process into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil.

Scottish consulting firm Wood Mackenzie found that there are about 100 refining expansion projects representing as much as 12 million barrels a day of new capacity being built globally -- nearly all outside the United States.

Saudi Arabia, the world's dominant supplier of crude oil, is building the most new refining capacity, thus positioning itself to also become the world's dominant supplier of gasoline and other refined petroleum products.

No refinery has been built in the United States since 1976, most due to "regulatory barriers and the not-in-my-backyard attitude of communities around the country," the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday.

U.S. refineries are operating at their virtual maximum utilization rate, and have been for many months.