
Refining Margins Under Price Controls: What the Arithmetic Says Before Politics Does
Thailand has just tripled the economic pressure on its refineries. The government raised the mandatory refining margin reduction from 2 to 5 baht per liter, a move that ostensibly protects consumers but in reality redistributes the cost of global volatility onto the most capital-intensive segment of the entire energy chain. The decision does not occur in a vacuum: WTI crude is trading between $102 and $107 per barrel in May 2026, with intraday swings of more than 8 percentage points tied to US-Iran tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Javier Ocaña9 min






































