Drill, baby, drill? More like refine, baby, refine.
As the shale oil boom faces its first slowdown, America's refiners are running harder than ever to keep up with drivers. Refineries in the U.S. used 16.8 million barrels of oil a day last week, the most in government data going back to 1982. They are burning through stockpiles of crude that earlier this year were the highest since 1930 to provide gasoline to motorists who are driving at a record pace.
The profit for turning crude into gasoline and diesel along the Gulf Coast, where about half of U.S. refineries are located, was the highest for this time of year in at least a decade yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
