As crude oil teeters on the edge of the $30s, it isn’t necessarily China or Saudi Arabia that will push prices over the edge. Rather, the final shove could come from the U.S. This isn’t about stubborn shale supply either. Rather, the big number to watch in coming weeks is refinery utilization, which measures how much of America’s refining capacity is running to turn crude oil into products like gasoline. This summer, those refineries have been running flat out . On a four-week-moving-average basis, utilization has been running above 95% since the week ending July 17, according to Energy Department data. That is the highest level since the summer of 2005. That should worry oil bulls on two fronts. First, despite U.S. refineries running at such a hot pace, sucking in crude oil, the price has still fallen by almost 30% since the start of July. Refiners have been […]

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