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Signal · Commodities & Input Costs

Elevated crack spreads and crude oil prices contribute to higher prices at the pump

EIA Today in Energy Authoritative source Published 4th September 2026 Global, US

What the source reported

Source-reported

What are crack spreads and why are they elevated? Crack spreads are indicators of the profitability of refining crude oil into petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel. One common crack spread is calculated by subtracting the spot market price of a gallon of crude oil from the wholesale price of a gallon of refined product. Since May, the gasoline crack spread in New York Harbor has averaged about $1 per gallon (gal) higher than in 2025, when the crack spread peaked around 60 cents/gal. Gasoline crack spreads are elevated primarily because of tight gasoline supplies globally.

Publication
EIA Today in Energy · Commodity/Energy Organisation
Published
4th September 2026
Original report
eia.gov

ProcIntel stores what the source published in its feed — a headline, a summary and a link. It does not store or reproduce the full article.

What ProcIntel recorded

ProcIntel-derived
Category
Commodities & Input Costs
Geography
Global, US
Organisations
None identified
Collected
4th September 2026 · 13:47

Initial assessment ProcIntel's automatic, provisional read of this individual Signal -- Initial Significance and Initial Confidence, computed deterministically before any Event extraction or human review.

A provisional, automatically computed reading of this individual Signal, before Event extraction or human review. Not a final rating.

Significance 1 · Low
Confidence 3 · Moderate

Initial Significance Low (18.0/100). Strongest contributor: Procurement Impact (6.0/30 points). Limiting factor: Geographic Breadth (0.0/10 points). Initial Confidence Moderate (42.0/100, data sufficiency: Partial). Strongest contributor: Source Authority (28.0/40 points). Limiting factor: Extraction Quality (3.0/15 points).

Strongest contributor
Procurement Impact
Limiting factor
Geographic Breadth