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If one considers the ongoing economic drive to optimize just-in-time [JIT] deliveries of fuels to maximize profits, it can be seen in these graphs as increased volativity; the ever wider swings to the outerbounds of normality. The minimizing of fixed overhead costs; the reduction of the 'safety buffer' of storage facilities to ease the logistics of supply control has not yet been adequately offset by improved comprehensive JIT management.
Perhaps an aviation analogy can best explain the forementioned paragraph. A well-designed plane is aerodynamically stable; it safely flys practically hands-free because it automatically inherently seeks to adjust the control surfaces to reduce airborne volativity. In contrast, a B-117 batwing stealth bomber is inherently unstable; the onboard computers are constantly adjusting the control surfaces on a JIT basis to keep the craft from rapidly losing control. This can only be done if the feedback loop system is totally understood and coded into the computers' software.
The top graph [of the posted series of graphs by Heading Out] is the 'flying result' of insufficient JIT logistics management. If market supply and demand were understood in totality: the 'gasoline plane' would smoothly fly thru the topchart with few undulations, instead of the wild roller coaster altitudinal gyrations we are now seeing.
The mandated switchover to new gasoline formulations, the rampup of ethanol and consequential trucking vs pipeline distribution, the ever-shifting variations of crude inputs to refineries, the erracticness of imports due to weather and scheduling difficulties, and on and on, are starting to overwhelm the 'invisible hand of the market' trying to 'JIT fly' through increasingly bad and evermore volatile conditions.
The ever-cascading feedbacks will eventually make the 'market B-117 pilot' loose control as evidenced by the other posters info where spot gasoline outages are occuring on the East Coast. As time marches on into the postPeak reality, we can expect evermore gasoline volativity as unforeseen market downdrafts and windshear buffet the energy infrastructure.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?