Summary

A review was made concerning conservation achievements in the petroleum refining industry, and the impact existing Federal energy conservation and fuel-switching programs have had in furthering conservation gains and encouraging switching to coal. The U.S. petroleum refining industry accounts for about 4 percent of total domestic energy consumption and over 10 percent of all energy consumed by the industrial sector. In 1978 alone, refineries consumed the equivalent of 1.4 million barrels per day of crude oil in producing refined petroleum products, or about 1 barrel of crude oil for every 10 barrels refined.

The review of the petroleum refining industry by GAO showed that: (1) although the Department of Energy (DOE) reported that the petroleum refining industry reduced its energy requirements to refine a barrel of crude oil by 19.5 percent between 1972 and the end of 1978, Federal programs designed to promote improved industrial energy efficiency had little impact on the improved refinery efficiency; (2) the National Energy Conservation Policy Act extended the reporting program beyond 1980, but did not give DOE legislative authority to set new efficiency improvement targets; (3) the current Federal policy of moving toward decontrol of domestic crude oil and natural gas prices should help achieve greater energy savings by making additional conservation projects cost effective; (4) the 10-percent tax credit for certain conservation investments is not expected to have much impact on refinery conservation efforts; (5) Federal programs to increase substitution of coal for oil and natural gas have had little impact on the refining industry, and in some cases may actually be hampering efforts to improve energy efficiency; and (6) Federal coal gasification activities to date have not been directed toward demonstrating the use of coal gas in a refinery since the refining industry has shown little interest in the project.