U.S. shale production is at record highs and the momentum is still not over. A lot has been said about the energy self-sufficiency implications of this trend, but there’s something that has not garnered a lot of attention: U.S. shale is light crude, great for making gasoline and other light fuels, but not so great for products such as middle distillates. Why this is important? Because gasoline demand is stagnating while demand for middle distillates is set for a serious boost ahead of the new IMO regulations on maritime vessel emissions. In a recent article for Forbes, Wood Mackenzie’s VP for Chemicals and Oil Markets, Alan Gelder, warned that U.S. refiners may very soon find themselves struggling with excess production of gasoline that exceeds demand for the fuel. At the same time, to make matters worse, the production slump in Venezuela is reducing the availability of heavy crude needed […]