At the opening day of RBN and Novi's School of Energy in Houston, Robert Auers covered the Refined Products markets: what’s driving supply and demand, what’s impacting the prices, and what can we expect for the future.
Diesel is taking the wheel of the refining barrel. As discussed in today’s Tradeview Report, the benchmark 3-2-1 crack edged just $0.52/bbl higher last week to $66.36/bbl, but that modest headline move masks a much more dramatic shift underneath.
USGC refining margins strengthened again in August as surging diesel cracks pushed the 3-2-1 crack spread to an average of $65/bbl, more than two-and-a-half times its year-ago level.
Woodside Energy has placed its Beaumont New Ammonia facility under strategic review and is evaluating its options for the site, the company said during its H1 2026 earnings presentation on August 25. CEO Liz Westcott said the company’s assets “must all compete for capital equally,” and that new energy opportunities must be supported by clear customer demands and commercial markets and compete for capital with other investment opportunities.
For many, 2026 will be remembered as the year that diesel cracks topped the century mark ($100/bbl) for the first time, surpassing even the post-COVID boom year of 2022. Today, we examine the various factors driving this run-up and what they reveal about the broader physical refined products market.
According to the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) released this morning, distillate stocks are on track for their lowest end-of-month level since April 2005; and this week marks the lowest inventories have been in the month of August since 1951.
Global prices for refined products have remained elevated for a number of reasons, with the state of Russia’s refining sector a major, if sometimes overlooked, factor. Today, we look at the conditions in Russia, how trade flows have shifted, and what a post-war recovery might look like.
BP needs to make sure it's able to compete against similarly sized competitors and that it is competing to win, CEO Meg O’Neill said during the company’s earnings call August 4. She said the company’s integrated model is a competitive advantage but that its performance over the past few years had not met expectations.
Refined product prices have remained elevated this summer even as crude oil prices have fallen from their 2026 highs set just a few months ago. In today’s RBN blog, we look at several factors that help explain the seeming disconnect between product prices and crude oil prices.
Crude oil sourcing for the three refining regions in Louisiana couldn’t be more different from each other. In today’s RBN blog, we examine crude oil flows into and out of the Bayou State, assess supply/demand balances, and explore why is could be increasingly important to understand those balances.
