Analysis of Refiners' No. 2 Distillate Costs and Revenues:July 1976-December 1978

摘要

The Office of Fuels Regulation (OFR) of the Department of Energy (DOE) presents in this report its factual findings regarding refiners' revenues and costs of No. 2 distillate sales analyzed as if price regulations under the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act had beennin effect for such products during the period studied.(1)nThe study period begins July 1, 1976, when No. 2 distillatenwas deregulated, and ends December 31, 1978, the latestnmonth for which cost and revenue data were available.nPrior to deregulation, refiners were permitted to raise prices of No. 2 distillate products only to the extent that increases in revenues over May 1973 were no greater than increases in costs over that month. A refiner could save, or "bank," costs it did not use in a month for use in future months. If a refiner's "increased revenues" in a given month exceeded its "increased costs" available in that month, plus its "banked costs" from previous months, the refiner was then required to reduce prices at the end of the following month to offset the excess revenues.