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Refining companies refute that such a huge amount of profit has even sparked a windfall tax discussion as a temporary one.



Then, reporter Jeong Hye-jin will tell you how oil refiners make money and how related discussions are going on in other countries.



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[Joe Biden/President of the United States: Exxon (U.S. oil company) made more money than God this year]



Earned more than God, the international oil company has been publicly criticized.



A windfall tax is being discussed in the US and already in place in the UK.



Our refiners also made a lot of money.



The operating profit of the four refineries is expected to exceed KRW 10 trillion in the first half of this year alone.



Refiners bring in crude oil and run factories to extract products such as gasoline and diesel.



If the refining margin remaining after subtracting the crude oil price and production cost from the product selling price is high, the profitability will also improve.



As the war in Ukraine broke out earlier this year and the international supply of petroleum products increased, margins also increased significantly.



The refining margin, which was in the $1 range a year ago, soared to the $30 range in June, leading to the largest profit ever.



Although domestic demand slowed slightly due to high oil prices, exports doubled compared to the first half of last year as export volume reached an all-time high.



The oil industry claims that this is a temporary phenomenon.



The refining margin has plummeted to the $2 level this month, so they are worried about losses in the second half of the month.



[Oil industry official: (Profit in the first half) is only a numerical profit that must be returned when oil prices fall in the future, accounting for approximately 30-40% of inventory-related profits from rising oil prices.]



However, consumers who have suffered from high oil prices are They say that it is clear that they made excessive profits.



[Goseok-gon / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: When (oil price) goes up, raise it by 20 won, 30 won, and when lowering it, a little, almost 10 won.

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The debate seems likely to continue over whether it is reasonable for refiners to share how much pain they have when they achieve mega performance.



(Video coverage: Kim Gyun-jong, video editing: Lee Jeong-taek)



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