California Running Out Of Gasoline? -- May 7, 2019

Updates

May 8, 2019: Saudi bases their price off Brent. California's major supplier is now Saudi.

May 7, 2019: reason --

California currently imposes the second-highest gas taxes in the country. A state excise tax currently adds $.417 per gallon, a rate that will increase to $.473 come July. On top of that, the state imposes a 2.25 percent gasoline sales tax.

As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state's gas taxes. When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase. It's 2019, and Newson, now the state's governor, is demanding an investigation into why the state's gas prices are so high. 

Later, 7:28 p.m. CT: some background to the original post --

• San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 2019
• KTLA, highest in state since 2014, April 17, 2019
• reason, California legislature hiked gas tax, April 24, 2019
• New York Times, why California gas prices are spiking, April 16, 2019
• CNBC, sky-high gasoline prices in California; rest of US may not even see $3-gasoline, April 11, 2019

Original Post

This one tweet seems to say it all -- Patricia squeezed in a lot of data in 280 characters. LOL.

My attempt to figure it out:

• mogas: gasoline
• USWC: United States West Coast
• ARA: Saudi Arabia
• USCS: United States Customs Service
• Vio La Benecia: Valero refinery; shut down for pollution issues; 
• Chv El Secundo: I assume this is Chevron El Segundo, Bay Area; Chevron; often in the news, and not always in a "good" way
• Martinez: a number of refineries in the Martinez area, as far as I know; many issues over the years; Andeavor; "Shell name"; Marathon; [see first comment below: Two refineries in Martinez. Downtown has Shell. To the east across I-680 is the old Tesoro, renamed Andeavor on its way to purchase by Marathon??] [Summer, 2019: PBF acquires Martinez; Shell no longer has any refinery operations in California; link here.]
• "early re-starts": Valero may "re-start" in mid-May?

Hopefully, Argus Media will provide the back story. Perhaps this is "normal" for this time of the year in California.

The bullet train, meanwhile, is making great progress. LOL.