Harold Hamm claiming Canadian producers fitted US refineries for Heavy oil

[wcsproducer + 3]

Anyone else notice in a recent interview Harold Hamm, often outspoken CEO of Continental resources blaming Canada for US heavy oil refining capacity issues? He made a wild and patently false claim that Canadians have taken over and converted US refining capacity to process heavy oil (Whether this is midwest or Gulf Coast I am not sure). I find it odd that a CEO of a midsize shale producer could be so wildly misinformed on a topic that is obviously quite simple and clear - I know of only one refinery in the US owned by a sort of Canadian company which would be Husky purchasing a small one in MN. Hamm claims Continental must export light oil due to Canadian meddling, it is almost laughable if it wasn't worrisome for more bad information being spread. The gulf coast capacity was built out for Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelean and even some Middle East heavy imports. Its pure fantasy to suggest this refining cluster is owned and operated by "Canadian Companies". They are mostly US large caps and even Aramco owned Motiva.. along with the Us large cap petrochemicals.  In fact the largest midwest intake of heavy oil is Whiting IN which is BP.  Im sure that refinery is extremely profitable as BP has expanded it and it feeds on an intake of heavily discounted WCS blend. I am also sure most gulf coast refineries would like to expand WCS intake as Venezuelan intake will be dwindling towards zero in the next 3-9 months if current trends continue. Maybe Hamm can start up some light oil refineries in North Dakota to alleviate a problem of his own making with profligate Bakken drilling & production.. Here is his quote. 

 

But Canada has got to get a pass-through system going. And they are. They basically bought refineries down here and everything to support their tar sands, much to our chagrin, frankly, and transformed those complete refineries to complex, heavy crude refineries. It really cost America a lot. That’s why we have to export. We didn’t have sufficient refinery space for sweet crude

I suppose this means Exxon, BP, Marathon, Lyondell, Motiva, Shell, and Valero are secretly owned by Canada? What a stupendously ridiculous claim to make. A regular Joe being unaware of industry facts is one thing, but a CEO of a shale pioneer is different. Delusional he must be. Making excuses for Continentals losses during the downturn despite his boasting of OPEC being irrelavent and toothless.. Continental would be bankrupt by now if OPEC hadnt cut production. 

This is just one among a string of false or wrong predictions and statements he has made.. makes you wonder if its time he stepped down from Continental.

[Refman + 207]

Over the last couple decades a lot of refiners made investments to process heavier crudes. Then the shale revolution happened and refiners did not have the capability to process the flood of light crude coming on the market. When the crude export ban was in place you could see the result of this because the Brent/WTI blew out to $20+ dollars, becuase the crude had nowhere else to go. Due to that price differential refiners started investing in more light crude processing capability. Then the export ban was overturned and the price differential practically disappeared overnight as this stranded crude was now able to be exported. 

 

[wcsproducer + 3]

Thanks for the reply, however your comment had nothing to do with what I pointed out. Also over simplifies a complex situation. I am trying to draw attention to Hamm's false blanket statement that Canada is buying and converting US refining capacity to process heavy crude at the expense of his light shale oil/condensate (low distillate output). He is essentially playing a blame game with an entire country and industry which is patently false.  

Almost every single refinery in the USA is OWNED and OPERATED by US based companies, with a mix of international majors in there (Saudi Aramco, Shell, BP,PVDSA, etc). Husky is Canadian and internationally based, operates/JV two refineries in Ohio.. was going to purchase an asphalt one in MN not sure if that deal went through. Hamm needs a FACTCHECKER on staff. Maybe Continental can afford to hire one if OPEC maintains their cuts to bailout his functionally bankrupt shale fracking company. 

 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

WCS,  you are going to find incompetence everywhere.  Even at Continental! 😊

[Justin Hicks + 162]

Well Harold is getting old....

[BillKidd + 139]

Hamm is the genius who unloaded  the CLR hedges in late 2014. Only cost 'em a billion.

I think he can also claim the costliest divorce in history? What a catch she is!

He's also a Trump surrogate, so, stretching things lying ain't no big deal.

Edited June 25, 2018 by BillKidd
misspelled big