Aidis Zunde

Time To Look at Valero?

Rover, you are quite correct -- my crack spread numbers represent the spread on three barrels and so should be divided by three to provide the standard "one barrel" spread. (I should have caught that immediately, just by looking at the amount of the spread!) Therefore, for one barrel, this spread actually runs from $9.41 for September crude to $16.22 for March, before dropping somewhat to $14.18 for August, 2009. Similarly, the refining margin should rise from 7.6% for September to 13.0% for March, then ease back to 11.4% for August. Finally, the profit spread on the cost of goods sold should improve from 7.1% to 11.5%. Thank you for catching that.
However, most importantly, this recalculation does not impact the trend I have discussed.