Valero Keeps 31% More per Barrel Than at the 2022 Peak Despite Cheaper Oil
Valero Energy earned $6.8 billion in the third quarter, six times a year earlier, as U.S. stockpiles of diesel and heating oil hit a mid-October low in records back to 1982. Oil cost $20 a barrel less than at the 2022 peak, yet Valero kept 31% more per barrel, before adjusting for inflation, as diesel’s price over crude soared.
The short answer. Valero kept 31% more per barrel above its raw material costs than at the 2022 peak, before inflation, even though crude cost less. The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the federal energy statistics agency, said on October 5 that U.S. diesel supplies had become tight because of high exports. It tied the wide gap between crude and diesel prices to disrupted refining in Russia, China and the Middle East. At the pump, diesel costs about $2 a gallon more than gasoline. On standard market prices, the gap between crude and wholesale diesel equalled about 39 cents of each diesel dollar last quarter. That gap is a market price every refiner sees, separate from Valero’s own profit.
Valero’s quarter and the price of diesel
What we calculated
- $39.24 a barrel, the highest of 23 quarters since early 2021 and 1.31 times the 2022 peak before inflation: Valero’s refining margin, what it keeps above material costs, from each release.
- About 93 cents a gallon processed: the $39.24 per barrel divided by the 42 gallons in a barrel.
- About three times the margin of a year earlier: $39.24 against $13.14 a barrel.
- Valero’s largest quarterly profit in StockTitan’s records, which begin in 2008: this quarter against the 73 earlier ones.
- A diesel gap over crude 1.5 times its spring 2022 level, with gasoline’s about level: Valero’s Gulf Coast figures, both on one basis.
- Diesel $1.99 a gallon above gasoline in the week of October 19, and every gap above $1.70 since 1994 came in September or October 2026: EIA weekly pump prices.
- The lowest mid-October U.S. stockpiles of distillate fuel since 1982: EIA’s weekly reading nearest October 16 in each year.
- About 39 cents of each diesel dollar matched by the wholesale gap, roughly double the 19 cents a year earlier: Valero’s Brent and diesel benchmark prices against EIA’s pump average.
- About 8% fewer shares than a year earlier: Valero’s average share count including shares that employee stock options could add, 285 million against 309 million.
- Crude about $20 a barrel cheaper than at the 2022 peak but about a third dearer than a year earlier: Valero’s quarterly Brent averages.
- About 4% fewer barrels processed a day than a year earlier: Valero’s throughput, 2,972 thousand against 3,087 thousand.
- A wholesale diesel gap that nearly tripled in a year, to $2.15 a gallon from 73 cents: New York diesel futures less Brent divided by 42.
On this page
How much Valero makes on a barrel of fuel
For every barrel it turned into fuel last quarter, Valero kept about $39 more than the crude and other raw materials cost it. That is about three times a year earlier, and more than at the height of the 2022 fuel crisis.
Valero runs 14 refineries in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and refining is almost its whole business. In its third quarter 2026 release it reported net income, its profit after all costs and taxes, of $6.8 billion, against $1.1 billion a year earlier.
Refining earned $8.8 billion before interest and taxes. Renewable diesel and ethanol added about $0.6 billion, and head office costs took about $0.3 billion back, leaving $9.1 billion for the whole company.
The number that explains the quarter is Valero’s refining margin, the amount it keeps per barrel above what it paid for crude oil and the other raw materials. It was $39.24 a barrel, against $13.14 a year earlier. A barrel holds 42 gallons, so that is about 93 cents on every gallon it processed.
That is a gross figure. After the cost of running the refineries and the wear on the equipment, about $32 a barrel was left, before head office costs, interest and income tax.
Show the data
| Category | Refining margin per barrel | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2021 | $6.91 | |
| Q2 2021 | $7.95 | |
| Q3 2021 | $10.07 | |
| Q4 2021 | $10.63 | |
| Q1 2022 | $12.74 | |
| Q2 2022 | $30.01 | 2022 fuel crisis peak, $30.01 |
| Q3 2022 | $21.34 | |
| Q4 2022 | $22.58 | |
| Q1 2023 | $22.37 | |
| Q2 2023 | $15.62 | |
| Q3 2023 | $19.47 | |
| Q4 2023 | $12.89 | |
| Q1 2024 | $14.07 | |
| Q2 2024 | $11.14 | |
| Q3 2024 | $9.09 | |
| Q4 2024 | $8.44 | |
| Q1 2025 | $9.78 | |
| Q2 2025 | $12.35 | |
| Q3 2025 | $13.14 | |
| Q4 2025 | $13.61 | |
| Q1 2026 | $14.90 | War in the Middle East begins, late February |
| Q2 2026 | $23.62 | |
| Q3 2026 | $39.24 |
In the second quarter of 2022, during the fuel price spike that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the same figure was $30.01. Brent, the main international crude price, cost about $20 a barrel more then than last quarter.
Both figures are in dollars of each day, and adjusting for inflation would narrow the 31% gap. Crude itself costs about a third more than a year earlier. In our reading of the two tables, the oil got cheaper than in 2022 and the refining got more valuable.
The jump came from a higher margin on each barrel, while lower volume trimmed it slightly. Valero processed about 4% fewer barrels a day than a year earlier, because it stopped refining at its Benicia plant in California by the end of April 2026. It also finished an upgrade at its St. Charles refinery that adds capacity for higher-value products, including gasoline.
The quarter’s profit is also the largest in StockTitan’s financial records for Valero, which begin in 2008. The previous high was $4.7 billion, in that same spring of 2022.
Show the data
| Valero refining, per barrel | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Q2 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refining margin | $39.24 | $13.14 | $30.01 |
| Running costs, adjusted | $5.03 | $4.71 | $5.20 |
| Depreciation and amortization | $2.12 | $2.57 | $2.10 |
| Refining operating income, adjusted | $32.09 | $5.86 | $22.71 |
| Barrels processed a day (thousands) | 2,972 | 3,087 | 2,962 |
| West Coast barrels a day (thousands) | 119 | 259 | 280 |
| Renewable diesel operating income ($ millions) | 353 | -28 | |
| Ethanol operating income ($ millions) | 272 | 183 |
Source: Valero earnings release tables for Q3 2026 (with the Q3 2025 column) and for Q2 2022 (as filed with the SEC). Refining margin is Valero’s own measure, not defined under accounting rules: refining revenue less the cost of crude and other materials, divided by barrels processed. "Adjusted" removes one-time items Valero lists, and depreciation is the yearly wear charged on the plants.
Why are diesel prices so high right now
The world has lost up to a tenth of its refining capacity, through the war with Iran that began in late February and attacks on Russian plants. The lost plants made a lot of diesel, and America has been shipping its own diesel abroad.
The squeeze is in refined fuel more than in crude. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas wrote on October 8 that global refinery capacity "has declined by as much as 10 percent". They point to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, damaged Middle East refineries, and Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian plants.
The Dallas Fed economists put the loss of Russian refining capacity at "as much as 60 percent over summer 2026", though estimates swing month to month.
American refiners have run flat out to fill the hole. U.S. refinery use averaged 95% of capacity in the third quarter, the Energy Information Administration said on October 5, and Valero described its own plants as running at "near-record utilization rates".
It has not been enough to refill the tanks. Diesel went abroad to markets that were running low, the EIA noted, and U.S. stocks fell through early October.
Show the data
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 1982 | 161.6 |
| 1983 | 157.7 |
| 1984 | 153.0 |
| 1985 | 116.4 |
| 1986 | 151.8 |
| 1987 | 125.0 |
| 1988 | 133.3 |
| 1989 | 120.2 |
| 1990 | 137.0 |
| 1991 | 137.7 |
| 1992 | 131.2 |
| 1993 | 133.4 |
| 1994 | 145.2 |
| 1995 | 133.5 |
| 1996 | 111.3 |
| 1997 | 136.9 |
| 1998 | 147.4 |
| 1999 | 143.3 |
| 2000 | 112.8 |
| 2001 | 127.5 |
| 2002 | 125.6 |
| 2003 | 132.4 |
| 2004 | 119.0 |
| 2005 | 122.7 |
| 2006 | 145.4 |
| 2007 | 134.5 |
| 2008 | 124.3 |
| 2009 | 169.9 |
| 2010 | 170.1 |
| 2011 | 149.7 |
| 2012 | 118.0 |
| 2013 | 125.8 |
| 2014 | 125.7 |
| 2015 | 145.0 |
| 2016 | 155.7 |
| 2017 | 134.5 |
| 2018 | 130.4 |
| 2019 | 120.8 |
| 2020 | 160.7 |
| 2021 | 125.4 |
| 2022 | 106.2 |
| 2023 | 113.8 |
| 2024 | 113.8 |
| 2025 | 115.6 |
| Week to October 16, 2026 | 104.3 |
In the week to October 16, U.S. stocks of distillate fuel, the category that holds diesel and heating oil, stood at 104.3 million barrels, according to EIA weekly data. That is the lowest for that week of the year in a series that starts in 1982, below even October 2022. The count leaves out how much the country burns each day, so it is a rough gauge. Gasoline stocks, by EIA’s weekly gasoline count, are low for the season but not the lowest in a series that starts in 1990.
Why is diesel more expensive than gas
Diesel fetches far more over the cost of crude than gasoline does right now. Valero’s own price table shows diesel’s gap over crude half again as wide as in spring 2022, while gasoline’s is about the same.
The EIA’s explanation is that the refineries knocked out abroad had supplied more diesel and jet fuel to world markets than gasoline, so those fuels are the scarcest. U.S. refiners have shifted output toward them, the agency wrote on September 4, and the gap has stayed wide.
Valero publishes, with every quarter, the market prices it watches. On the Gulf Coast, where most of its barrels are processed, diesel sold $72.27 a barrel above Brent crude in the third quarter. Gasoline sold $24.08 above it.
Show the data
| Item | Q2 2022 | Q3 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel over crude | $48.15 | $72.27 | +$24.12 |
| Gasoline over crude | $23.53 | $24.08 | +$0.55 |
Those gaps are what the industry calls crack spreads, a rough measure of what refining earns. In the spring of 2022, on the same basis, Valero’s table showed $48.15 for diesel and $23.53 for gasoline, as restated in its second quarter 2023 release. So gasoline’s gap is back where it stood that spring, and diesel’s is far above it.
Both figures already subtract the cost of meeting the federal rule on blending renewable fuels, which Valero put at $14.34 a barrel last quarter.
The pump shows the same split. In the week of October 19, a gallon of diesel averaged $6.276 across the country and regular gasoline $4.284, according to the EIA’s weekly survey.
That $1.99 difference is near the widest in EIA weekly records for diesel, which begin in 1994. Every week with a gap above $1.70 came this September or October, and the widest was September 21, when diesel hit $6.529, the series high.
Gasoline is still well below its own June 2022 record.
Show the data
| U.S. pump average, dollars per gallon | Diesel | Regular gasoline | Diesel minus gasoline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week of October 19, 2026 | 6.276 | 4.284 | 1.992 |
| Week of September 21, 2026 (diesel record) | 6.529 | 4.478 | 2.051 |
| Week of June 20, 2022 (2022 diesel high) | 5.810 | 4.962 | 0.848 |
| Widest 2022 week, November 28, 2022 | 5.141 | 3.534 | 1.607 |
Source: EIA weekly U.S. diesel retail price and EIA weekly U.S. regular gasoline retail price, nominal dollars, all taxes included. The difference is our calculation.
What you pay for in a gallon of diesel
On standard market prices, the crude and the gap between crude and wholesale diesel each equalled about 39 cents of every dollar a driver spent on diesel last quarter. That gap is a market price, separate from any one refiner’s profit, and a year earlier it was about 19 cents.
We set the average pump price against two benchmarks from Valero’s table. One is Brent crude, divided by 42 to give a gallon. The other is the diesel futures price on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price traders agree for diesel delivered in coming months.
The gap between those two benchmarks, $2.15 a gallon last quarter, is measured at New York prices and before the renewable fuel cost. That is why it is wider than the Gulf Coast diesel gap above, which works out to about $1.72 a gallon. What is left of the pump price covers taxes, delivery and the station, plus any difference between New York and the national average.
Show the data
| Category | Crude oil (Brent) | Diesel futures over crude | Pump price minus diesel futures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2022 | $2.66 | $1.37 | $1.46 |
| Q3 2025 | $1.62 | $0.73 | $1.41 |
| Q3 2026 | $2.18 | $2.15 | $1.23 |
A year earlier the wholesale gap was 73 cents a gallon. Last quarter it was $2.15, so it nearly tripled in a year.
On these benchmark numbers, crude and the wholesale gap together rose more than the pump price did, and the part left over shrank. That fits what the Dallas Fed economists wrote, that the prices reflect "supply constraints in the global market for refined fuels rather than retailer or distributor markup."
The wholesale gap is a market price every refiner sees, and it is not Valero’s profit on a gallon of diesel. Valero’s 93 cents is its gross margin per gallon processed across all its products, gasoline and lower-value fuels included, before its own running costs.
The same squeeze reaches other bills. Gulf Coast jet fuel cost about twice as much in September as a year earlier, as our look at holiday airfares found. Gasoline drove half of the September rise in the prices producers charge for goods.
Put together, a slightly smaller refining system, running close to full while diesel supplies were tight worldwide, made more on each barrel than in any of these 23 quarters. For drivers, that gap between crude and diesel is now about as big a part of the pump price as the oil itself.
Show the data
| Dollars per gallon of diesel | Q2 2022 | Q3 2025 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude oil (Brent, divided by 42) | 2.66 | 1.62 | 2.18 |
| Diesel futures over crude | 1.37 | 0.73 | 2.15 |
| Pump price minus diesel futures | 1.46 | 1.41 | 1.23 |
| Average pump price | 5.49 | 3.76 | 5.56 |
Source: Valero Q3 2026 and Q2 2022 release tables for Brent ($111.69, $68.14 and $91.61 a barrel) and New York Mercantile Exchange diesel ($4.03, $2.35 and $4.33 a gallon). The pump price is the mean of the 13 EIA weekly U.S. diesel readings in each quarter. The split is our calculation and an illustration on benchmarks, not a record of who received each dollar.
Valero’s dividend, buybacks and debt
Valero returned about half of its adjusted cash from operations to stockholders and repaid some debt. It ended September with more cash than debt, though not once its leases are counted.
The quarterly dividend, the cash Valero pays for each share, was $1.20, up from $1.13 a year earlier. Our dividend yield calculator turns a payment like that into a yearly percentage of the share price.
Valero said its cash returns to stockholders came to 52% of its adjusted cash from operations, the cash its businesses brought in before swings in inventories and bills. It did not give a buyback amount in the release.
Buybacks are the company purchasing its own shares, and the number of shares fell about 8% in a year, which fits them. With fewer shares, earnings per share, profit divided by the number of shares, grew a little faster than profit.
Valero repaid $526 million of bonds that came due in July and September. It ended the quarter with more cash than debt, but its finance leases, long-term rental contracts that count like debt, tip the balance the other way.
Valero puts its debt minus its cash at 4% of its capitalization, the money lenders and shareholders have put into the company. It spent $432 million on its plants in the quarter, most of it to keep them running.
For owners, then, the quarter shows up as a higher dividend, fewer shares and a cash pile larger than the company’s debt, while the refining system itself is a little smaller than a year ago.
Show the data
| Valero, September 30, 2026 | Billions of dollars |
|---|---|
| Total debt | 8.6 |
| Finance lease obligations | 2.4 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 9.8 |
Source: Valero Q3 2026 earnings release, other financial data.
What to watch
- Whether Valero can make more diesel, and what it sees for the fourth quarter: Valero’s conference call, 10 a.m. ET on October 22.
- Whether U.S. distillate stocks keep falling: the EIA weekly petroleum data, next released October 28.
- Whether pump diesel stays near $6.28: the EIA Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, next released October 27.
- Whether other refiners show the same jump: Phillips 66 and HF Sinclair report on October 28, PBF Energy on October 29 and Marathon Petroleum holds its call on November 3.
How we counted
Valero’s refining margin per barrel comes from the per-barrel table of each quarterly release from early 2022 to the third quarter of 2026. The 2021 quarters come from the prior-year columns of the 2022 releases, which gives 23 values. Per-gallon figures divide Valero’s per-barrel figures by 42.
The profit comparison sets the third quarter of 2026, from the release, against the 73 earlier quarters of net income attributable to Valero stockholders in StockTitan’s financials, from mid-2008.
The diesel and gasoline gaps over crude are Valero’s Gulf Coast reference figures, which subtract the cost of renewable fuel credits. For the second quarter of 2022 we used the figures Valero restated on that basis in its second quarter 2023 release.
The pump gap is the EIA weekly U.S. diesel price minus the regular gasoline price for the same week, from March 1994. The distillate count takes, for each year from 1982, the EIA weekly reading within three days of October 16.
The diesel split uses Valero’s quarterly Brent and New York diesel futures averages and the mean of EIA’s 13 weekly pump readings in each quarter. Every comparison with 2022, the 31% included, uses dollars of the day, not adjusted for inflation.
Frequently asked questions
How much did Valero earn in the third quarter of 2026?
Valero reported net income of $6.8 billion, or $23.89 a share, for July to September 2026, against $1.1 billion, or $3.53 a share, a year earlier. Refining brought in $8.8 billion of the $9.1 billion its businesses earned before interest and taxes.
Why are diesel prices so high right now?
Global refining capacity is down by as much as 10%, according to Dallas Fed economists, through the war with Iran and attacks on Russian refineries. The lost plants made a lot of diesel, and U.S. diesel has gone abroad. Pump diesel averaged $6.276 a gallon in the week of October 19.
Why is diesel more expensive than gas?
Diesel fetches far more above the cost of crude than gasoline does. In Valero’s third quarter table, Gulf Coast diesel sold $72.27 a barrel over crude and gasoline $24.08. At the pump, diesel cost $1.99 a gallon more than regular gasoline in the week of October 19.
Are refineries making more money than in 2022?
Valero is. It kept 31% more per barrel above its raw material costs last quarter than at its 2022 peak, in dollars of the day. Its quarterly profit was also the largest in StockTitan’s records for the company, which begin in 2008. Other large refiners report from October 28.
Why are gas prices high when oil is cheaper than in 2022?
Gasoline is below its 2022 peak. The U.S. average was $4.284 a gallon in the week of October 19, against the $5.006 record of June 2022, but about $1.27 above a year earlier. Crude rose over that year, and so did gasoline’s price over crude, though far less than diesel’s.
Where can I see Valero’s quarterly earnings history?
The Valero financials page on StockTitan holds its quarterly income back to 2008, and the Valero overview page collects its press releases and filings.
Sources
- Valero Energy Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results (StockTitan)
- Valero Energy Reports Second Quarter 2023 Results (StockTitan)
- Valero Energy Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results (StockTitan)
- Valero financials (StockTitan)
- Valero overview (StockTitan)
- PPI Jumped 1.3%, and Only Half of It Was Energy (StockTitan)
- Why Plane Tickets Cost So Much More This Holiday (StockTitan)
- Dividend yield calculator (StockTitan)
- Valero second quarter 2022 earnings release, as filed with the SEC
- EIA, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, October 20, 2026
- EIA, weekly U.S. diesel retail price
- EIA, weekly U.S. regular gasoline retail price
- EIA, weekly U.S. ending stocks of distillate fuel oil
- EIA, weekly U.S. ending stocks of total gasoline
- EIA, Today in Energy, October 5, 2026
- EIA, Today in Energy, September 4, 2026
- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Refinery outages pumping up fuel prices more than cost of crude oil, October 8, 2026
The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.