ThinkstockCrude oil refiners have taken some heavy hits in the past couple of months. Because the cost of crude contributes about 65% to the price of gasoline, gas prices have remained high,…
ThinkstockCrude oil refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) announced a cut to its second-quarter earnings estimates well after markets closed last night. Late last week the country’s largest refiner, Valero Energy Corp.…
ThinkstockWhen supermajor oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) pick a new chief executive officer, the new appointment virtually always comes from the upstream exploration and production side of the…
ThinkstockOver the past 12 months, the best performing oil refining stock has been Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO), which has doubled, even though it has dropped sharply in the past month. Phillips 66…
ThinkstockWhen U.S. crude oil supplies remain very high, U.S. drivers can usually depend on gasoline pump prices to fall. That has not been happening in the U.S. for about 2 months now,…
ThinkstockLast year was a good year for oil and gas stocks, but unless a company had a refining and marketing operation, it was not a great year. Share prices rose by at…
U.S. equity markets opened mixed this morning as investors weighed conflicting data from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In Europe, retail sales declined more than expected in Germany, Italy’s unemployment rate remained…
ThinkstockOil refiners Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) and Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) reported first-quarter 2013 results before markets opened this morning. Marathon posted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.17 on…
U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning after the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that personal income and spending both rose by 0.2%, which was slightly higher than expected for spending and…
ThinkstockAfter Leading the S&P 500 and the energy sector for the past two years, and into the first quarter of this year, the U.S. refining sector hit a rough patch in March.…
ThinkstockShare prices appreciated by at least 80% for most major crude oil refiners in 2012, a far better performance than turned in by the integrated oil companies, the oil services firms and,…
ThinkstockIn the energy sector, 2012 was the year of the refiner. Stock prices appreciated at least 80% for most of them, while the supermajor integrated companies were only able to tally gains…
Thinkstock BP, Texas City refineryWhen oil refiner Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) reported a big earnings beat this morning, it was almost inevitable that the halo would also appear above the other…
ThinkstockCrude oil transportation on the Seaway pipeline resumed today at the pipeline’s full capacity of 400,000 barrels a day now available to shippers wanting to move crude from the storage point at…
thinkstockLooking back on 2012, it is hard to discern the biggest story in the oil and gas sector. The reshuffling of assets was certainly a contender, as was the huge growth in…
