Short CNBC Piece on Refineries Closing, Refineries Expanding

CNBC reporting:

At $96 a barrel, U.S. oil prices are now $20 cheaper than North Sea Brent crude futures, which are trading above $116 a barrel. Since gasoline is priced based on the Brent crude oil market, Gheit says, "making a gallon of gasoline is cheaper to do here than overseas."

That's the reason East coast refineries, which rely more on foreign oil than domestic crude, are shutting down.

Last week, Hess announced the closure of its Port Reading, NJ refinery at the end of the month. Deutsche Bank estimates about 610,000 barrels a day of refining capacity has been shut down since 2009, excluding Hess' NJ refinery.

About 60 percent of the closures have been on the East Coast, according to Deutsche Bank.

Meanwhile, BP is spending billions of dollars to expand its Whiting, Indiana facility, already the largest refinery in the Midwest, to better handle growing U.S. and Canadian supplies. But shutdowns and planned repairs to refineries are also reducing gasoline supplies more severely in some parts of the country than others. Overall, the result is higher prices at the pump.