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Lots of knowledgeable posters on this topic. The economics of it always baffle me. Ven crude has to be modified prior to refining which is an added cost. But after refining (another cost) it brings more oil products into the market which should move the consumer cost down thus lowering return to industry. I get confused easily.

Is asphalt still shipped by ocean-going barges to NW Gulf Coast?

It has a different product slate to a small extent. It does not have to be upgraded for several major Gulf Coast refineries. They can refine as is.

Asphalt is residual oil. What is used for paving roads is asphalt concrete.

Asphalt is called that because it is residual, bottom of the barrel, high in asphaltene content, aka long carbon chain molecules. Back in the late 1970's a friend who was a merchant seaman on a tanker complained about a load of asphalt with string they carried from Corco refinery near Ponce, PR. I forget where they carried it to. Such heavy petroleum cargo requires steam coils to keep it warm during the voyage.

Different crude oil sources are for different refineries and product slate. Crude oil high in paraffin wax is easy to refine and good for making base oil to make motor oil. Venezuelan as well as Canadian and Californian is good for making petroleum coke, as well as the aforementioned asphalt.

Every refinery has its own crude oil cocktail, or blend of types of crude oil, to maximize the refinery efficiency.

The crude oil being traded on exchanges doesn't actually exist. It is only a set of specifications such as West Texas Intermediate and Louisiana Light. Crude oil actually sold is indexed to these sets of specifications if on an ongoing contract. Indie oil producers sell to pipeline as the prices set by the pipelines where they pick up the crude oil. Pipeline companies have large pipeline terminals where some actually blend sources to suit needs of buyers.

So the truth is that the price at the pump is indirectly influenced by the price posted on traded exchanges.

I only found out a few weeks ago that Marathon's refinery in Texas City doesn't make finished gasoline or diesel. These are finished elsewhere. Finished does mean blended to specifications.

Gasoline at the pump is a blend of streams at a refinery. It's not just cooked and split from the oil in a distillation column. That doesn't work at all. It is a blend of straight run from the column, with isomerate from an isomeration unit, from alkylate from an alkyation unit and reformate from a naphtha reformer. Plus, additives for a particular brand are mixed in. Then ethanol is also blended in as well. Modern gasoline is made up of rearranged molecules. The original molecules come from propane, propylene, n butane, iso butane, pentane, hexane, heptane, etc...

Just like this, motor oil comes from more than oil. Base oil, which is closer to diesel than what goes into your motor, has crumb rubber melted into it and all sorts of antioxidants and metallic salts for wear.

Refining to end products is much more complicated than the public realizes.