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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Oil entitlements program and its effects on the domestic refining industry

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7318677

It has been hypothesized that entitlements increased crude oil imports and decreased refined-product imports. The empirical tests summarized in this paper support the hypotheses. There are several implications. First, it is doubtful that individual refiners realized that the collective behavior of the industry would eliminate the subsidy. They acted as though the subsidy was there. Second, eliminating the entitlements program will reduce crude oil imports and increase product imports for all products except distillate fuel oil. Statistically, distillate oil does not appear to have been affected by the incentives of the entitlement program. Finally, because most products appear to have responded to entitlements, removing entitlements will affect the supply from the domestic refinery industry. Therefore, if there are any product markets with an insignificant amount of imports, eliminating entitlements would cause a shift in the supply/demand situation and prices could change some.

Research Organization:
RAND Corp., Santa Monica, CA (USA)
OSTI ID:
7318677
Report Number(s):
P-5717
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English