US refineries are famous for being able to handle heavy dirty crude. That was why they were buying Russian crude in the first place. Originally, the refineries along the Gulf were set up to refine heavy crude from Venezuela but they had to stop due to politics with Chevez so they switched to Russian crude. It was reported that they had to go shopping for Venezuelan crude when they shut off the Russians.
So, what do you want to do, burn that asphalt in your truck? The fact is, they got to do something with it, they can't just dump it on the ground so it's very likely they sold it to China.
By the way, there is an old little used short line near here that stretches from the southern NY border some 80 miles north. Years ago, it was used to deliver Midwest grain to the once thriving NY dairy country but all those small mills are gone now along with all those hundreds of 30 cow dairies. All those sidings are now used to warehouse rail tank cars full of asphalt, five, ten, twenty cars to a siding, literally several hundred cars spread out over 80 miles. At the very end of that line, they actually have several miles of asphalt-filled tank cars stored ready to go whenever it's called for. They accumulate it over the course of the year, then in summer when there's lots of road building they use it up.
Just the other day, on my way through town to get parts, I had to stop and wait for a train of 40 or so of those tank cars to go through the crossing.
