Delta Air Lines Inc. finance chief Paul Jacobson said earlier this month that rising crude prices and the fuel switch for oceangoing vessels represented a “net ‘bad’ for the airlines,” adding that Delta’s in-house refinery should help offset the negative impact. Refineries produce three main categories of fuel: gasoline for cars; “distillates,” including both diesel and jet fuel; and heavier fuels used for a variety of industrial purposes, including to power many ships. By a marketing convention, jet-fuel prices are usually pegged to diesel prices, typically selling for a few cents more a gallon. Airline and refining industry officials are bracing for a surge in diesel demand as shipowners switch from heavier bunker fuels. Should diesel prices rise, jet fuel could follow. “Jet fuel is the unintended consequence” of the new maritime regulations, said Mason Hamilton, petroleum markets analyst at the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “There is a high […]