Expanding fuel shipments from the Persian Gulf will intensify competition from Europe to Asia, squeezing profits across the global refining industry and contributing to a looming glut of oil products. As Saudi Arabia, Iran and other crude suppliers build new oil-processing plants and upgrade old ones, the Gulf region is poised to become a net exporter of refined products as soon as this year. This heralds a tougher contest for sales between state companies in the Gulf, the trading houses that currently supply them and Asian refiners that are also boosting exports. European refiners are set to lose out as newer rivals from the Middle East, India and China vie with them for sales, according to consultants Wood Mackenzie Ltd. and FGE. Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi have built export-oriented refineries with a combined capacity of almost 1.4 million barrels a day over the last four years, and the […]