Bound by oil - Lives linked by a suburbian gas station

When Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek asked the oil industry if he could track crude flows from across the globe to a single gas station, the answer was unequivocal: It simply can't be done.

An industry spokeswoman reinforced that notion and even referred Salopek to a Web site debunking popular legends. Snopes.com declared: "y the time crude oil gets from the ground into our gasoline tanks, there's no telling exactly where it came from."

As it turns out, that's not always true.