Comment Re:"Have you said thank you once?" (Score 1) 349
The US tends to import heavy sour crude and export light sweet crude. We have the refining capacity for heavy sour, which is more capital and energy intensive, so that works out economically. We have extra heavy refining capacity now because in January Dos Bocas went on line in Mexico, so Mexico can now refine more heavy and export more lucrative refined products. Fortunately for US refiners, we also got a new source of crude (very heavy and sour) when we "liberated" Venezuela.
In general, the heavier and more sour the crude, the harder it is to refine; if the US suddenly had an excess of light sweet and a shortage of heavy sour, US refineries could still handle it.