Chevron does not report a comparable, standalone refining margin figure, but reported Friday that its downstream profits quadrupled from a year earlier to $4.9 billion, with the company citing higher margins on sales of refined products. Prices have also supported earnings at some integrated oil majors, which operate both upstream oil and gas businesses and downstream refining operations. Its profits have risen back to levels last seen during the 2022 energy crisis, following Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Unless they materially increase available supply, demand weakens or global tensions ease. Raphael Portela, director of corporate strategy and analytics at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, told CNBC that barrels of crude oil were still “leaving the Gulf” in the midst of the war, but “at a heavy shipping premium,” while “the diesel and jet fuel that those barrels would have largely become are not.” he added. He listed what would have to happen for the crisis to end: “Product supplies will return, based on increased availability of crude oil for the global refining sector: Gulf refineries will restart and Russian exports will return.”
