This is a guest post by Smokey. Smokey has a background in sustainability in transportation, and has conducted research on responding to fuel supply disruptions.

To what degree is the decline in quality crude affecting domestic refinery utilization rates and therefore gasoline stocks?

In recent years some analysis has suggested that light sweet crude oil may have peaked, with the world left to increasingly rely on lower quality crudes. See for example this story on The Oil Drum and this story on Energy Bulletin. Although the data on global peaking of light sweet crude may not yet be conclusive, data on the production of many regions that produce primarily light sweet crudes conclusive show that many of these regions are past peak.

On May 16th, I participated in another conference call with the American Petroleum Institute. The subject was gas prices. Since I am probably not the best person to challenge the API on gas prices, I put out an invitation at The Oil Drum for others to join the call. (The reason I am not the best person to challenge them is (1) I understand why gas prices are rising; (2) I work in the industry; and (3) I think prices should be even higher to spur conservation efforts). So, joining me on the call were 2 of my colleagues from TOD - Alan Drake and Chris Miller (Dryki). I will pull out some excerpts of our questions, but you can read the entire transcript here. I am told that they had some recording difficulties, so there will be no audio posted.