Surging prices for natural gas are threatening to eat up the profit some oil refiners are making on their fuels, forcing them to cut processing rates and even altering normal crude-buying patterns. Surging prices for natural gas are threatening to eat up the profit some oil refiners are making on their fuels, forcing them to cut processing rates and even altering normal crude-buying patterns. Natural gas — specifically methane — is central to making the hydrogen that oil refineries rely on for diesel-producing machines called hydrocrackers and hydrotreaters, which help to eliminate sulfur. The natural gas price surge has added up to $6 per barrel to the cost of processing more sulfurous crudes — as much as a tenfold increase compared with two years ago — according to the International Energy Agency. As well as creating uncertainty about what a revival in refining margins, it yet another example of […]