By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Soaring gasoline prices this spring and summer may have pinched drivers, but they helped U.S. oil refiners rack up huge quarterly profits and extend a hot earnings run that began several years ago.
Refining profits for 22 of the largest energy companies jumped more than 20 percent to $11.8 billion in the April-to-June period this year compared with 2006, according to the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.
That’s nearly double their second-quarter profits three years ago, and a record since at least the first quarter of 2000, when the Energy Information Administration began regularly compiling the profit figures.