Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

toomuchtodo 65 points 47 comments August 18, 2026
www.bloomberg.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (7 comments)

toomuchtodo

https://archive.today/FXENu Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_spread https://rbnenergy.com/market-data/3-2-1-crack-spread https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=1630 https://financialpost.com/news/posthaste-an-energy-shock-muc...

Animats

This is a refining capacity problem, not an crude oil supply problem. The various wars have taken out refining capacity and transport capacity. On the crude oil side, the US strategic petroleum reserve is declining rapidly.[1] That took a hit during COVID and the early Ukraine war because production was down. Refilling started afterward, but didn't take it up to normal levels. There's still maybe a year of oil left. [1] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W...

martythemaniak

I think declaring the Straight of Hormuz a US territory will solve this problem.

ck2

highest Diesel price per gallon national average was $5.81 after covid June 2022 we are most certainly going to break that by the end of the year (it's $5.47 average today) they are trying to use Strategic Oil Reserve (and maybe Venezuela) as a piggy bank but all that's about to break badly, permanently if this administration lets it go down to 70 million barrels despite the warnings by experts at 300 million, they'll never repair the damage

metalman

It is just amazing watching how markets are working to build prosperity for the rich. With scarcity a thing of the past, bombing choke points is proving to be wildly profitable and as capital never sits still it can be wherever conditions are nicer. whoooeee $2.40 a gallon of pure profit, but when you strip away the rest of the scam, pumping, production, shipping and distribution are still only $1/gal, so full profits not counting interest lending to people to buy the car and the fuel in the first place are more than 75% right now. And with NOWHERE left to put the money, AI.

leonidasrup

This should help with transition to electric vehicles. On the other hand, batteries for EVs are produced in even smaller number of countries (mostly China) then oil is pumped (Middle east, US, Russia, Canada). https://www.iea.org/commentaries/global-battery-markets-are-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_extra...

marten31

The refining bottleneck is the part people miss. Crude supply headlines get all the attention but margins blow up when you can't process what you have.

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