01

For many car owners, there is good news today: domestic fuel prices have dropped again!

The National Development and Reform Commission has announced that starting from midnight tonight, the price of gasoline will be reduced by 290 yuan per ton, and the price of diesel will be reduced by 280 yuan per ton. This translates to savings of 0.23 to 0.24 yuan per liter of gasoline when refueling.

This also means that for most areas in the country, the price of 92-octane gasoline is just over 8 yuan, 95-octane gasoline has essentially returned to below 9 yuan, and the price of diesel has even returned to the 7-yuan era.

This is the 18th price adjustment this year, and there have been no instances of suspended adjustments so far, with the number of price increases still leading, with 11 increases and 7 decreases for the year.

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However, if we only look at the second half of the year, the decrease is in an absolute advantage. Since July 1st, there was a continuous drop for five consecutive times, and in early September, there was a single increase. Just as everyone was worried about a reversal in fuel prices, a new round of price reductions has now been initiated.

02

International crude oil prices have been on an upward trend since entering 2022, with a particularly sharp surge in March due to the outbreak of conflict in Europe, but overall, they have been gradually increasing.

However, since mid-June, a continuous decline has been initiated.

The WTI crude oil price was still at 123 dollars per barrel in mid-June, but it has now dropped to around 85 dollars, and at its lowest, it even reached 81.2 dollars.Influenced by many factors, oil prices may enter a period of significant fluctuation in the near future.

03

In the first half of this year, with the joint contribution of consumers worldwide, the giants in the oil industry have made a fortune.

Taking Saudi Aramco as an example, its net profit for the second quarter exceeded $48 billion, and the net profit for the entire first half of the year reached nearly $90 billion. As a result, it has become the king of profit among all listed companies globally.

Like other oil giants, the increase in profits mainly comes from the rise in crude oil prices.

In fact, there has been no significant increase in the production and sales of crude oil. Russia's exports have decreased, while the Middle East's exports have increased, but the global demand has not increased significantly. Therefore, the increase in sales alone cannot explain the crazy growth in profits.

However, oil prices can explain everything.

Throughout 2021, international crude oil prices rose from $50 to $80, but after entering 2022, they rose from $80 to $130, mostly operating between $Due to the domestic refined oil pricing mechanism, many people have a feeling that when international oil prices rise, domestic oil prices increase more rapidly; when international oil prices fall, the decline in domestic oil prices is relatively moderate.

However, it is strange that even so, the profit growth of the three major domestic oil companies is still worse than that of their foreign counterparts, and the returns to investors in terms of stock prices are also much worse.

Taking the WTI crude oil price as an example, on June 14th of this year, the highest price was $123.68, and it has fallen to $86 so far, with a decline of 30.5%.

However, on June 15th, domestic gasoline was 10,850 yuan per ton, and after several ups and downs, the current gasoline price is 9,435 yuan per ton, with a decline of only 13%.

It can be seen that the gap is very large.

If domestic oil prices also fell by the same 30%, the current gasoline would have returned to around 7 yuan. Of course, this is just hypothetical.