Great topic but I think you are missing the big picture. Our gas prices in Utah are a case in point; our gas comes from local crude, refined locally, yet we are paying the same high prices as a U.S. local market dependent on imports. Little has changed in our supply chain and yet our prices for crude are the SAME as they would be for imported oil. The price fix is in, fixed in the structure of the crude oil market. When crude futures traders see a supply or demand crunch coming, such as the reopening of global economies post Covid, they bid the prices up high in anticipation, hoping to cash in on the supply/demand driven price spike. ALL crude sellers base their prices on these futures contracts and the global spot market prices, regardless of the ACTUAL cost of pumping, refining, and delivery. This is why fractional differences in Saudi or Russian pumping make outsized differences in prices... single digit mismatches in supply are multiplied by futures speculation and the ability of local producers to charge a global price for their product.https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/commodities/cl%3anmx