Europe's refiners to pay price for oil glut in US

London

THE biggest crude glut in the US since the 1930s means one thing for European refiners: The highest margins in eight years won't last.

US plants, ending seasonal maintenance, will push down European prices with rising exports, particularly of diesel and jet fuel, as they eat into a domestic stockpile of almost half a billion barrels of crude. The shipments will help reduce the continent's third-quarter processing margins by about 42 per cent, predicts Wood Mackenzie.