(Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency made deep cuts to its estimates on oil refineries’ historical profits as it announced changes to its methodology for calculating their processing margins.
The Paris-based adviser to energy consuming nations published hefty across-the-board reductions to margins as far back as 2021 in its monthly market report and said it restated them in its data as far back as 2020.
The changes, leaning on data from Argus Media, were made to reflect changed assumptions about the products that the plants were churning out, the crudes they were processing, and different energy-related costs.
The IEA’s new methodology now includes regional utility costs. However, the margins remain indicative as they don’t include the full spectrum of energy costs, or other important costs and expenditures.
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