[Note: This is another post, originally posted on March 12, 2003, on my blogger-based version of Corey's Ramblings. I've made some updates when moving to it here.]
I just got an email saying that we should boycott buying gasoline from companies which import crude oil from the middle east. It lists some companies that do, then lists companies that don't. At the bottom of the email, as in more spam-like form letters (the ultimate email virus), it says that all this information is available on the Department of Energy's website. So, being the bored SOB that I am, I decided to look it up.
Before you read this, here are a couple disclaimers:
1, The DOE addresses this concern in their "Primer on Gasoline Sources & Prices," so please consult that before jumping to conclusions and boycotting certain companies;
2, I am in no way affiliated with the government or any oil company; and,
3, I still can't believe I actually wrote this up.
Now, as stated above, the DOE addresses this concern, and they have a very informative faq, which has the following very good answer:
Can I tell which country or State the gasoline at my local station comes from?
For several reasons, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) cannot definitively say where gasoline at a given station originated:
- EIA does not collect data on the source of the gasoline sold at retail outlets.
- The name on the service station sign does not tell the whole story. The fact that you purchase gasoline from a given company does not necessarily mean that the gasoline was actually produced by that particular company's refineries. While gasoline is sold at about 176,000 retail outlets across the nation, about one-third of these stations are “unbranded” dealers that may sell gasoline of any brand. The remainder of the outlets are “branded” stations, but may not necessarily be selling gasoline produced at that company's refineries. This is because gasoline from different refineries is often combined for shipment by pipeline, and companies owning service stations in the same area may be purchasing gasoline at the same bulk terminal. In that case, the only difference between the gasoline at station X versus the gasoline at station Y may be the small amount of additives that those companies add to the gasoline before it gets to the pump.
- Even if we knew at which company's refinery the gasoline was produced, the source of the crude oil used at that refinery may vary on a day-to-day basis. Most refiners use a mix of crude oils from various domestic and foreign sources. The mix of crude oils can change based on the relative cost and availability of crude oil from different sources.
[source: Department of Energy Energy Information Administration's Primer on Gasoline Sources and Markets]
The DOE's website was actually quite easy to navigate. Upon looking at their navigation menu on the right, it appeared that "Sources & Production" would probably be a good place to start. Wow, what a bunch of links come up when you navigate to that page. Scrolling down the page a bit, I saw what I hoped would lead me to the information I needed. Namely, under the Petroleum header, a link to "http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/info_glance/petroleum.html."
Hmm.... I'm now a bit confused. How do I want to access petroleum information? I tried Product, but no luck there. Then, I noticed the list of "Featured Topics." Looking down the list, I found "Company-Level Petroleum Imports." Bingo! Click on it leads me to a page that has exactly what I'm looking for.
On this page, they have a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that contains oil companies and their import records. You can download it either from the DOE page or use my handy direct link to it.
*NOTE* Looking at the URL, it appears that this link will always download the latest data
Pulling up the file in Excel, I'm immediately overwhelmed by the amount of data. Lots of columns with cryptic names and lots of values in the columns that I don't understand (here is the DOE's explanation page of the codes). Luckily, Excel provides some nice data analysis tools. Click on the Data->Filter->Autofilter, and Excel puts drop-down boxes on the headers for all the columns. This way, you can filter the data shown by whatever you select. Just as a sample, I can choose the PROD_NAME column and view only the rows associated with CRUDE OIL, FOREIGN. That sounds like a good start. Going over to the right a bit, I can see a column called CNTRY_NAME, which sounds like a great candidate for telling me which country the import is coming from. So, I can click on the drop-down and see a list of possible values I can filter on. As a lark, let's choose IRAQ. That drops the number of rows displayed down quite a bit.
| Companies that import crude oil from Iraq |
| CHEVRON CORP |
PHILLIPS 66 CO |
VALERO MKTG & SUPPLY CO |
| PREMCOR REFG GROUP INC THE |
LYONDELL CITGO REFG LP |
MARATHON ASHLAND PETRO LLC |
| ORION REFG CORP |
CITGO PETRO CORP |
ATOFINA PETROCHEMICALS INC |
That's fine, but we always hear that all the middle-east companies are supporting terrorism in one way or another, so it would be good to know the companies that import from any middle-east country. So, since the auto-filter only allows you to filter by, at most, two values, and I'm too lazy to really do a more detailed form of filtering, we'll be lazy and simply sort the list by country name, then we can see really quickly which companies import from where. So, choose Data->Sort, then select the CNTRY_NAME as the column to sort by. Set your auto-filter again and choose CRUDE OIL, FOREIGN. This will give us a list of the companies that import crude oil, sorted by the country they import from.
This table is substantially larger.
| Companies that import crude oil from the Middle-East |
| Company |
Countries they import from |
| AMOCO OIL CO |
Kuwait Saudi Arabia |
| ARCO PROD CO |
Oman Saudi Arabia |
| ATOFINA PETROCHEMICALS INC |
Iraq Saudi Arabia Syria |
| CHEVRON CORP |
Iraq Kuwait Saudi Arabia |
| CITGO PETRO CORP |
Iraq Kuwait |
| EXXON CO USA |
Kuwait Saudi Arabia |
HUNT CRUDE OIL SUPPLY CO |
Saudi Arabia |
| LION OIL CO |
Saudi Arabia |
| LYONDELL CITGO REFG LP |
Iraq Saudi Arabia |
| MARATHON ASHLAND PETRO LLC |
Iraq Kuwait Saudi Arabia |
| MOBIL OIL CORP |
Saudi Arabia |
| MOTIVA ENTERPRISES LLC |
Saudi Arabia |
| MOTIVA ENTERPRISES LLC |
Saudi Arabia |
| MURPHY OIL USA INC |
Saudi Arabia |
| ORION REFG CORP |
Iraq |
| PHILLIPS 66 CO |
Iraq Saudi Arabia |
| PHILLIPS PETRO CO |
Saudi Arabia |
| PREMCOR REFG GROUP INC THE |
Iraq |
| VALERO MKTG & SUPPLY CO |
Iraq Kuwait Saudi Arabia |
Disclaimer: All that is written here is based on my personal research, so, as always, take my words with a grain of salt and plenty of alcohol, as it could very well turn out that I know absolutely nothing.