To quantify the import fee required to discourage product imports into the US East Coast market, it was necessary to determine the locations of the most competitive offshore refineries. The effect of the present entitlements program was not included and the foreign crude to US refiners was included at projected world market prices. The delivered cost of products to the East Coast from several foreign locations was determined, and a summary of the results is shown in Table 1. The differential in $/Bbl over the East Coast business-as-usual (BAU) case is also shown in Table 1 for comparison. Our conclusions are as follows: (1) the refineries located in the Caribbean/Bahamas area are the most competitive of the offshore locations; (2) a Virgin Islands refinery is more competitive than one in Puerto Rico; (3) an export refinery in the Middle-East is not as competitive as one in the Caribbean/Bahamas area when utilizing current methods of refined product transportation; and (4) refineries located in North and West Africa have a cost advantage of $1.31 to 1.57/Bbl over East Coast refineries, but cannot compete with a Caribbean/Bahamas refinery due to high product transportation costs.