Exxon, Chevron Fuel Price Woes Forecasted Through Year-End
Top US oil producers ExxonMobil and Chevron are warning that global supplies of diesel and other refined products will likely remain tight, leading to persistently high prices in the second half of the year.
The companies reported large jumps in second-quarter refining profits on Friday due to declining fuel stockpiles, curtailed exports from China, and refinery outages in Russia. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said that demand for distillates including diesel and heating oil is unlikely to decline over the long term, which will keep product pricing under pressure.
ExxonMobil ran its US refineries at high capacity and had a record second quarter for diesel production, while Chevron had record throughput at its US refineries of more than 1 million barrels per day. However, Exxon CEO Darren Woods warned that the refining challenge will be with the world 'for a while' due to the ongoing war on Iran disrupting crude supplies.