Shell just reaped an extra $1 billion from oil refining in 3 months as gas prices at the pump skyrocketed

• Shell reaped an extra $1 billion from refining in the second quarter as gas prices soared, it said Thursday.
• The oil giant said its refining margins almost tripled to $28 a barrel in the three months from April to June.

Shell reaped in an extra $1 billion in the second quarter from its oil-refining business as the prices for gasoline and other fuels soared.

The oil giant said Thursday its refining margins rocketed to $28.04 a barrel in the second quarter, up from $10.23 in the first quarter and $4.17 in the same period a year earlier. That means it made almost three times more refining each barrel of oil than it did in the first three months of 2022.

It said the boom would likely add between $800 million and $1.2 billion to second-quarter earnings for its refinery arm, compared with the January to March period. The adjusted earnings of its chemicals and products segment came in at $1.17 billion in the first quarter.

Fuel prices around the world have jumped in 2022 as oil prices rose sharply. But analysts have said the prices of oil products are running much higher than they typically would expect, because of what Goldman Sachs has called "unprecedented" bottlenecks at refineries.

Coronavirus battered the refinery industry, causing many plants to shut down altogether. The high price of natural gas — a key ingredient in refining — has limited European capacity. Meanwhile, Chinese refineries have been hit by coronavirus lockdowns.

With economic activity recovering from the pandemic and supply chains snarled, refined oil products such as gasoline have surged. Prices at the pump hit $5 a gallon in the US in June.

Oil prices have since cooled, however, bringing down the price of gasoline in the US and other fuels around the world.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, traded at around $101 a barrel Thursday. That was down from $124 a month earlier, although well above the $79 level seen in early January.

Yet plenty of analysts believe prices are set to keep rising or at least remain elevated, with many expecting Russian output to fall as the EU bans imports from the country.

"In our view, crude prices should rise as supply growth lags demand growth over the coming months," said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management. He said he expects Brent crude to rise to $130 a barrel by September.