Refiners making money as the rest of energy industry suffers in downturn

Fuel Fix:
Tesoro Corp. reported record profit Wednesday for third quarter, as earnings jumped 91 percent.

The San Antonio-based refiner’s earnings from continuing operations jumped to $759 million, or $6.13 a share, compared with earnings of $397 million, or $3.06 a share, for the same period a year ago.

Favorable margins and high utilization of its plants aided the results. Margins on Tesoro’s products rose to $15.57 a barrel compared with $11.82 for the third quarter of last year.
...
Unlike the producers, the refiners can export their products from the US.  Because the export ban on production skews the price for US oil, they can take advantage of the lower price for domestic oil and sell the refined product at the world price.   I blame the Democrats for this mess although some of the refiners are doing well on their rent seeking politics.

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