Refining & Downstream (products, diesel, crack spreads)
Sarah Johnson
Refining & Downstream Correspondent
Sarah Johnson covers the part of the barrel people actually buy: gasoline, diesel, jet, and the refinery margins that decide whether it gets made. She works from Singapore, the pricing center of the Asian products market, and has spent 10 years on cracks, turnarounds, and the arbitrage that moves fuel between the Gulf, Europe, and Asia. She spots when a maintenance season or a single outage is about to widen diesel margins, and she has the chemistry to back it up.
Contact: sarah.johnson@theoilslick.com
Career
- Refining & Downstream Correspondent, The Oil Slick (2021-present)Leads products and refining-margin coverage from Singapore.
- Oil Products Price Reporter, S&P Global Platts (2016-2021)Assessed Singapore gasoil and jet and covered Asian refinery runs and arbitrage.
- Downstream Reporter, Argus Media (2013-2016)Reported on European product markets and crack spreads from London.
- Business Reporter, The Straits Times (2011-2013)Business and energy coverage in Singapore.
Notable coverage
- Reported the 2022 diesel-margin surge, tracing how tight distillate supply and refinery closures drove cracks to records.
- Covered the wave of refinery closures across Europe and Asia and laid out which plants were most exposed.
- Explained how the IMO 2020 low-sulfur marine-fuel rules reshaped the diesel and fuel-oil pool.
Education
M.Sc., Chemical Engineering, National University of Singapore. B.A., Journalism, Nanyang Technological University.
Awards & recognition
SOPA Award for Excellence in Business Reporting (2020)Singapore Press Club Young Journalist commendation (2014)
Recent articles
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