RE: Refinery economics not subprime crisis affecteTHIS IS TOTAL NONSENSE. The article/blog you have referred to is completely misleading and has nothing to do with NLRC.
The author is a clinical idiot who has confused the low margins for gasoline derived from LIGHT SWEET CRUDES and produced by existing decrepit refineries in the US with something completely different.
NLRC will be the most technologically advanced, flexible and highly efficient refinery in the world producing high-margin ULTRA-LOW SULPHUR DIESEL and JET FUEL and SULPHUR and PETROLEUM COKE etc., from discounted HIGH-SULPHUR HEAVY CRUDES all destined to the export markets. Diesel is in short supply, at a premium worldwide and will remain so for the foreseeable future for too many reasons that are beyond the scope of this post to list. Sulphur on the other hand has gone through the roof and is up 1100% in one year and is expected to continue its uptrend !
We all know that the world is awash with heavy sour crudes and more production is coming on stream all the time so the discount may very well get bigger and Diesel demand is certainly going up not down. This means that the margin for NLRC is going to improve going forward. And so what if a few 40 or 50 year old refineries are making some band-aid conversions or upgraders to handle a little extra heavy crude; it's not like you can put alloy wheels and a turbocharger on a 1970 Ford Pinto and pretend it's a 2008 Maserati or even a Toyota Prius. And besides the extra refining capacity wil hardly cover the increase in heavy crude supplies.
It is important to remember also that the location of NLRC allows it a flexibility on its exports of finished products as well as imports of crude that an inland refinery does not have. As an example today there are tankers sitting in the PersianGulf laden with heavy crude for lack of refining capacity; NLRC would be able to take advantage of that or similar opportunities.
And last but not least; who said anyone cares about US gasoline demand ???