The 3:2:1 crack spread is $54.04, its widest in a month

Crude fell much faster than the fuels made from it this month, and that gap is now sitting in refiner pockets. The 3:2:1 crack spread is $54.04, up $8.96 over the past 30 days. When the spread widens like that, refiners are earning more on each barrel they run, and the reason is the split you can see in the raw numbers.

WTI crude is down 19.3% over 30 days, and it is at the 12 percent mark of its range, sitting near its low of $68.25. Brent tells the same story, down 17.6% and at the 13 percent mark. Both benchmarks are near the floor of where they have traded all month. The products did not drop nearly as far. Diesel is down 12.1% and gasoline down 8.6%, both still sitting mid-range at 51 and 58 percent. Crude off almost 20 percent while gasoline is off under 9 is exactly what pushes a crack spread this wide.

For a jobber or retailer, the refiner win does not pass straight through to you. The diesel retail-wholesale spread is $1.28, down 33 cents over 30 days. Street margin on diesel got thinner this month even as the refining margin got fatter. Your cost of diesel at the rack is following crude down, which helps, but the room between wholesale and pump narrowed, so the per-gallon you keep is tighter than it was.

The thing to watch is whether pump prices catch down to crude. Gasoline and diesel are both still holding well above their 30-day lows, so if crude stays near this floor the products could keep drifting lower and pull the crack spread back in. If that happens, the wide refiner margin you see today may not last, and the cheaper rack cost is the piece worth pricing against now.