Bloomberg Surveillance · Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Steven Scholl explained that refining margins are massive due to a shortage of gasoline and diesel, leading refiners to operate at near-maximum capacity. Utilization rates are at 100% in the Midwest and 97% on the Gulf Coast, indicating the industry has already reached its limits in bringing more product to market.
“The market is telling us through the forward curve, both in the diesel marketing and the gasoline market that we are short of product, and hence, now the margins, the difference between diesel and gasoline and CRUDEO are massive.”
“Therefore, the refiners are doing everything they possibly can to capture those margins, and therefore they are running. In the Midwest, they are running at virtually one hundred percent of capacity. In the refinery epicenter, in the Gulf Coast, they're running at ninety seven percent of capacity.”
“So the refining industry, he's already pushed to its max at this point. So there's a very little more margin that the industry can do to get more gasoline to the market.”