A brief period of high profitability for the world’s oil refineries is likely to come to an end as quickly as it began, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. Weak crude oil and relatively high prices for gasoline, diesel and petrochemical feedstock have pushed up refining profits sharply over the last six months, helping oil companies cope with much lower profits from upstream production. In the first quarter of this year, combined profits for the likes of BP ( BP.L ), Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ), Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ), Total ( TOTF.PA ) and Eni ( ENI.MI ) from refining and trading represented 60 percent of total earnings, compared with 18 percent last year, according to Reuters calculations. Crude oil prices collapsed from $115 a barrel […]