Another “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good headline” story.........from CR

Exclusive: Iran sanctions seen spurring more Saudi oil sales to U.S.

'The article wants you to believe increased oil shipment to theUS is some dark SA/US political conspiracy…….oooooh'

But some say the scale of the increase, plus other U.S. data showing Gulf Coast inventories are still subdued, suggest the potential for a political dimension as well, evoking comparisons to 2008 when the OPEC kingpin was driving up production to knock oil prices off record highs near $150 a barrel.

….'when, in really, as described at the end of the article, it is because construction of a large refinery has just completed….a project that started 5 years ago:'

The build appears related, at least in part, to a massive expansion project at Saudi Arabia's 285,000-bpd Motiva Port Arthur, Texas joint-venture refinery with Shell Oil, the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell.

All expansion units are expected to be in production by the end of the second quarter of this year, with the expanded refinery reaching, by the end of the year, a maximum capacity of 660,000 bpd. Motiva Enterprises began circulating feedstocks through some of the expansion units in January

Motiva declined to comment. The expansion project, budgeted at $5 billion, began in 2007, and when complete will make the refinery the largest in the United States.