Add diesel fuel supplies to market anxieties over shortages and high prices. Diesel hit all-time record prices this week. Both gasoline and diesel rose sharply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but in the last two weeks, diesel prices spiked again. And the medium-term outlook remains bullish.

The above prices are in the Midwest, but the problem is more acute on the East Coast. While the Russia/Ukraine war is an adverse catalyst, it is not the driving underlying force for the current diesel situation. The issue is inventories and refining capacity on the East Coast. Since January 2022, inventories of distillate on the East Coast are down 47 percent. In the past two years, refining capacity has dropped to 818,000 barrels per day, d...