Big West Oil Partners - Competitors

Big West Oil Partners Competition

Now Viewing Big West Oil Partners's competition in: Petroleum Refining (primary)

Recent Developments

ExxonMobil Dropping Retail Business - ExxonMobil, which owns an estimated 2,200 service stations in the US, is getting rid of its retail service stations, mimicking a developing trend among petroleum refiners and petroleum companies that also own retail stations. According to the company, high gas prices are making it too difficult to earn profits by the time gas is sold at the retail level. Other vertically integrated companies, such as BP, which participate in both refining and retail sales, either plan to or have already sold their service stations.

Oil Gains Weight, Concerns Mount - Refiners are having difficulties: they need to increase output, but the way to do that is often by acquiring heavier crude oil, which requires more energy to refine and can lead to more pollution. The EPA and numerous environmental groups are concerned about the trend toward heavier crude, which refiners insist must be a part of the solution to meet expected demand increases for gasoline and other refined products.

Demand for Refiner Products Off - Demand was down in the US in early 2008 for many refiners' products, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API). Overall, oil demand fell 2.4 percent in the first four months of 2008 compared to the same period one year ago; another indicator of refiners' business health, crude oil production, was also down 2.9 percent. Despite the drop in production, demand for oil did increase a slight 0.2 percent in April 2008 compared to April 2007.

Competitive Landscape

Demand, largely driven by US consumption of gas and diesel fuel, has been relatively flat in recent years. The profitability of refineries depends on efficient operations and the best mixture of products. Although there are significant economies of scale in refinery operations, a small refinery can compete effectively with large ones if it's located in a favorable market area, or if it produces specialty products that are in high demand. The industry is highly automated: average annual revenue per worker is over $3 million.

Full Industry Overview For Petroleum Refining

Petroleum Refining Industry Forecast

from Hoover's/D&B subsidiary First Research

The output of US petroleum refining is forecast to decrease at an annual compounded rate of 2.5 percent between 2007 and 2012.

Petroleum Refining Production Growth Volatile

First Research forecasts are based on INFORUM forecasts that are licensed from the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. (IERF) in College Park, MD. INFORUM's "interindustry-macro" approach to modeling the economy captures the links between industries and the aggregate economy.