A study of the relationship between spot product prices and spot crude prices: OIES paper: M5

This paper is an investigation into the relation between crude oil prices and the prices of the products made from refining crude oil. Commentators on the oil market often focus on a measure of the difference between the “value” of the oil once converted into products and the cost of the crude oil itself. There has been very little published work on the nature and behaviour of this margin and the first part of the study is addressed to the problem of measuring and summarising its behaviour