Tech bros who don't know the industries they talk about should honestly STFU. It's the one annoying thing about HN. Y'all feel you need to talk but aren't actually contributing anything of value to the conversation.
Rebuilding refinery capacity within the US is hard, especially given that a net new refinery hasn't been built in the US in 50 years.
Honestly if YC agrees to delete my comments I'd be glad to leave this forum. Host HNers just aren't worth dealing with at this point.
Hey.
You're obviously having a bad couple days, which seems to have nothing to do with this discussion or HN.
I hope you can recover and feel better.
Re:How an Oil Refinery Works
by flumpmaster on Friday May 01, 2026 @01:15PM
(#47977339)
“especially given that a net new refinery hasn't been built in the US in 50 years.”
Existing large refineries have done some massive expansion projects in the last couple of decades, adding the equivalent of a several new refineries. It is often easier to do this than build a new grass roots refinery.
Example projects:
MPC Garyville +180 MBD (2009) Motiva Port Arthur +325 MBD (2012) XOM Beaumont +250 MBD (2023)
> It's interesting to both see Asian majors and EPCs increasingly dominating the petrochemical chain
You really don't want downstream in your backyard, though. The environmental oversight in these countries is...less. Meanwhile, it's a hyper competitive industry with low margins so adding new capacity only works in places with cheap labor and less red tape.