[hr]evilgenius wrote:
What does this say about the future of refining in the US? Which way will Asia go as it invests for the future? Which way will Western capital go for that matter?
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf countries are in the process of spending huge amounts building refineries to use this type of crude for domestic purposes. To summarize what Rocdoc123 said yesterday, they are selling the good stuff to foreigners and keeping the sour stuff to use for powering their local economies.
As far as being important to the West, no it's not very important now but it is a developing market. The US and Canada are making significant efforts to upgrade refineries to process heavier crudes, especially that from Canadian tar sands.