Oil Refiners Are Cashing In on a Market That Won’t Stay Broken
Oil Prices Have Jumped 12% Since Friday as War Risks Return What I Cover Julianne Geiger is a veteran energy journalist and market analyst with more than a decade of experience covering the global oil and… Oil refiners have stumbled into one of the best profit environments in years.
Crude prices have fallen back to where they traded before the Iran war erupted.
But gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel remain stubbornly expensive.
That combination has pushed refining margins to extraordinary levels, giving refiners a windfall that few expected just weeks after the Strait of Hormuz reopened.
3-2-1 crack spread—a closely watched measure ofrefining profitability—recently climbed above $60 per barrel, the highest level on record.
Similar gains have spread across Europe and Asia.
Every barrel of crude processed is generating unusually large returns because feedstock costs have collapsed faster than refined-product prices.
The crude market changed almost overnight after the U.S.
and Iran reached a ceasefire agreement in mid-June.
During the months-long closure of the Strait of Hormuz, hundreds of millions of barrels accumulated on tankers and in storage across the Gulf.
Once shipping resumed, those barrels began reentering the market.
Middle Eastern crudeexports jumpedto more than 12 million barrels per day in June from less than 8 million bpd in May, according to Kpler.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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