Poor fundamentals for crude and petroleum products and climbing refining capacity globally will ultimately cause some companies to close refineries or file for bankruptcy, Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates LLC said in a presentation made at Telvent DTN’s annual Refined Fuels Summit in Omaha last week.

“The only question is who will shut down, and where,” he said.

Lipow pointed to new refining capacity coming online in Asia that will add to the world’s coffer of gasoline and diesel fuel supply. He referenced new oil refineries either in service or being built in India, China and Vietnam. In highlighting the 580,000 bpd Reliance export refinery in Jamnagar, India that was brought into service in December 2008, he said that supply will either come to U.S. shores or displace supply elsewhere that will show up as imports to the United States.

In a change from its past stance, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission held hearings last week—with another slated for Wednesday, to explore whether to set investor position limits in the energy markets, with the goal aimed at “addressing excessive speculation” and ensuring that the markets operate in a more transparent and efficient manner.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has targeted excessive speculation in energy trading, where price volatility has been tied to speculators with lots of investment capital. He said over 70 parties exceeded accountability levels on energy positions in the past 12 months.

The regulator of U.S. futures markets is now reviewing how to exert its power to limit the number of futures contracts that can be held by traders, and to determine if some traders should be allowed to exceed the so-called position limits. Some see such a rule by the CFTC as a necessary regulatory action in helping to prevent market manipulation by dominant players.