Both of these companies are large producers in Alaska, which represents about 16 percent of U.S petroleum production. Thus, together they account for 69 percent of total oil production in Alaska. Alaskan crude oil is used mainly in refineries on the West Coast. Currently the West Coast demand for crude oil exceeds Alaskan production, and thus is able to absorb the Alaskan volumes. While essentially all of Alaskan crude production ends up in PADD 5, it only represented 45 percent of all crude oil received in that region in 1998.
Individual refiners use of Alaskan crude varies widely.
Refiners in California have easy access to California crude oil production. Lower 48 crude oil meets about half of California refinery requirements. Most of the lower 48 crude oil run in California refineries comes from California production. Together, their Alaskan production supplied over 20 percent of crude oil received by California refineries. They use very little if any domestic crude oils outside of Alaskan.