Smaller independent refiners with less complex facilities are surging in the stock market of late, as investors expect strong earnings growth thanks to the recent fall in price of their primary cost – light, sweet crude oil coming out of West Texas. Over the last 20 years, the nation’s biggest refiners spent billions building units capable of turning heavy, sour crude into gasoline, diesel fuel and other products. But the U.S. shale revolution has boosted crude production to a record 10.5 million barrels per day, upending the global oil market by adding millions of barrels of very light crude to the supply mix. A majority of that new production is light, sweet West Texas […]