Explained: Amid price hike, why is there a worldwide oil-refining crunch?
Drivers around the world are feeling pain at the pump with fuel prices soaring, and costs are surging for heating buildings, power generation and industrial production.
Prices were already elevated before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. But since mid-March, fuel costs have surged while crude prices are up only modestly. Much of the reason is a lack of adequate refining capacity to process crude into gasoline and diesel to meet high global demand.
Overall, there is enough capacity to refine about 100 million barrels of oil a day, according to the International Energy Agency, but about 20% of that capacity is not useable.
