[gearhead]

For those that want to dive a bit deeper into oil issues than network news headlines, I would recommend looking at the daily blog at rbnenergy.com. The blog on October 26 is very interesting concerning the future of crude price.
It may not be widely understood but refineries cannot process just any crude oil. As domestic crude production decreased over the years refineries were modified to run heavier crude. As the lighter fracked oil became more available some refineries were modified again and some weren't. If they were set up for heavy crude and could still buy it they continued to use that. Otherwise some of that light crude was exported.
Very similar to the nat gas market. The ethane, propane, rejection scenario is dependent on several factors. If Japan is willing to pay premium price for LNG, the amount of propane and butane separated from ethane will decrease thus tightening the domestic propane market. It's Economics 101.