While today's world does not necessarily run according to the maxim "you can't have what you can't afford",it will at least have some meaning to adhesive formulators. With oil prices increasing, and a burgeoning "fracking" industry releasing natural gas from shale rock at low cost, refineries in the US have been pushing their plants towards using lighter cracking inputs at least since 2009. This in turn has impacted petrochemical-derived tackifier supplies, as when flexible cracker operators move to lighter and cheaper feeds, they typically don't produce many heavier molecules. This includes C5 and C9 building blocks for hydrocarbon tackifiers used in formulating hot-melt and pressure-sensitive adhesives. The supply lost provides one driver that forces up tackifier prices, while high crude oil prices provide another.