Bloomberg Surveillance · Thursday, August 6, 2026
Paul Sank, an energy fellow, describes the current state of the refinery market as 'upside down,' with diesel prices reaching as high as $175 a barrel. He attributes this to a global shortage of refined products, exacerbated by the US exporting refined products for the past decade. Sank notes that while demand for efficient vehicles like hybrids is growing, refineries have the capacity to send product overseas, making it a lucrative, albeit infrequent, time to be a refiner.
“The refinery world is turned upside down. Explain to mere mortals why the refinery world is in real issue, like diesel at one hundred and sixty dollars a barrel equivalent, and how we're going to extricate ourselves from that mess.”
“So the reason is there's a shortage of refined products across the globe, and here in the US we've been exporting refined products now for about ten years.”
“It is a great time to be a refiner, you know, once every twenty five years. It's a good time to be a refiner.”