Thanks to Ukrainian attacks: Bazan moves from loss to profit
The company moved from a loss of $37 million to a profit after the refining margin jumped to $17.9 per barrel. Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries in Russia and the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz reduced the supply of fuel products and boosted profitability.
Bazan recorded a profit of $263 million in the second quarter of 2026, compared to a loss of $37 million in the same quarter last year. This is thanks to a jump in the refining margin: the gap between the price of crude oil and the price of fuel products. This gap has widened in recent months, particularly due to targeted Ukrainian attacks on fuel refining infrastructure in Russia, which is responsible for 7% of international fuel refining capacity, as well as the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, within which significant refining capacity is located.
Bazan's revenues stood at $2.7 billion, a significant jump compared to less than $1.5 billion in the same quarter in 2025. The adjusted EBITDA stood at $317 million, more than four times compared to the same quarter last year ($76 million) and in fact almost 3 times more than the adjusted EBITDA of the entire first half of 2025. The vast majority comes from Bazan's main activity, the refining sector, but an additional $30 million came from the American oil company Cantium, in which Bazan acquired a majority stake (52%).
Ukraine's attack and the Strait of Hormuz
Bazan presents the reason for the jump in profits clearly: the rise in the global refining margin to a seemingly unprecedented level of $17.9 per barrel, compared to $10.5 per barrel in the same quarter last year. This jump stems from two major geopolitical events: the war in Ukraine and the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran.
In order to harm Russia, which has been invading Ukraine since 2022, Ukraine is attacking with missiles and UAVs the many oil refineries of Russia that are spread even thousands of kilometers from the border. This creates a fuel crisis in Russia, which harms both its military capability and civilian life, and prevents it from exporting fuel at a significant profit. As a side effect, the decrease in fuel supply in the world boosts the gap between crude oil and fuel products, which dramatically raises Bazan's profits.
The second event is of course the closing of the Strait of Hormuz since March, which, while blocking the export of crude oil from the Gulf, also leaves quite a bit of refining capacity "trapped" behind the strait - and hence increases the demand for Bazan's services as an oil refinery. In total, only 81% of global refining capacity remained intact.
At Bazan, they tried to utilize the high margin as much as possible, and the amount they processed was the highest since the beginning of 2025, with 2,252 thousand tons of oil refined in the quarter.
