Consumers Feel Pinch at Pump as Russia Drives Oil Refining Boom

In Europe, the US and Asia, giant plants are making money by doing what they’ve always done: converting crude oil into vital fuels and selling them at a profit. What’s different today is the scale of the threat to global supplies: Relentless attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, outages at key plants in Asia and Africa and permanent closures across Europe and the US have removed millions of barrels of diesel and gasoline from the world market. On top of these real-world impacts are traders’ fears of what’s yet to come: imminent US sanctions on Lukoil PJSC and Rosneft PJSC and fresh European Union curbs on fuels made from Russian crude threaten already squeezed supply-chains.