US gas prices at the pump have never been higher than they are right now, despite crude prices being below previous highs (albet increasingly rapidly despite Biden's SPR release plan)...

In fact, refining margins (as indicated by the so-called 3-2-1 crack spread) have exploded to historically high levels in recent weeks...

...amid lower product supplies from Russia and China and surging demand for gasoline and diesel (driving the barrel equivalent prices for jet fuel, gasoline, and diesel notably higher than crude)...

However, to take advantage of this is not easy, as Chevron CEO Mike Wirth noted in an interview with Bloomberg TV, adding refining capacity is not easy, especially in the current environment:

"You're looking at committing capital 10 years out, that will need decades to offer a return for shareholders, in a policy environment where governments around the world are saying: we don't want these products," he said.

"We're receiving mixed signals in these policy discussions."

The Biden administration is at once demanding US producers pump more to help lower gasoline prices at the pump, and at the same time are blasting US refiners and producers for "gouging" and looking at punishing them with a "windfall tax."

"We're still seeing real strength in demand" despite international air travel and Chinese consumption not yet back to their pre-pandemic levels, Wirth said.

"Demand in our industry tends to move faster than supply in both directions. We saw that in 2020 and we're seeing that today."