Tausi Insider

U.S. oil refining margins on Tuesday hit a three-month high and are likely headed higher, analysts said, as unplanned refinery outages weigh on already-tight fuel supplies. The outages have pushed up gasoline prices in Texas and Oklahoma this year ahead of what is expected to be a heavier than usual turnaround season for refineries. The rising prices and margins are unusual for this time of year, when travel falls. The crack spread, a key gauge of refiner profits that measures the difference between crude oil prices and selling prices of finished products, touched $42.41 on Tuesday, the highest since October. The five-year January average is $15.56, an analysis of Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Average gasoline prices in Texas hit about $3.07 a gallon on Tuesday, up almost 44 cents from a month ago, according to the AAA motor group. Motorists in Oklahoma also are paying about 45 cents more, at $3.13 a gallon, AAA data showed. A diesel producing unit at PBF Energy’s Chalmette, Louisiana...

U.S. crude and gasoline inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, on weaker demand for fuel products. Crude inventories rose by a less-than-expected 533,000 barrels in the last week to 448.5 million barrels, compared with forecasts for a million-barrel rise. “The increase was much smaller than anticipated and that’s raising concerns about tightness in supply,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group. U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 1.8 million barrels in the week to 232 million barrels, the EIA said.​ Total product supplied, a proxy for fuel demand, fell 867,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. Meanwhile, refinery utilization rates rose by 0.8 percentage point, bringing the rate above 80% after falling to the lowest levels lowest since March 2021 the week prior. Refinery crude runs rose by 128,000 barrels per day in the last week, the EIA said, as refiners ramped back up after a winter storm caused plants to idle some production. Distillat...