Germany is running out of refineries, and it now admits that’s a problem. Economy Minister Katherina Reiche: “Whoever loses the refinery loses not only the supply for the gas station, but above all for the chemical complex.” Berlin now says it wants to stop more refineries closing. Look at the timing. Shell stopped processing crude at its 140,000 b/d Wesseling refinery last year. BP’s 250,000 b/d Gelsenkirchen has been up for sale since early 2025 with no buyer. Scotland lost Grangemouth, 150,000 b/d. Europe chose to import its diesel and jet fuel. Now the imports are the problem. Russian diesel exports hit a decade low. Gulf fuel exports run at about half of normal. US diesel costs about twice a barrel of crude. On Friday Germany’s stockpiling agency EBV put out a tender to sell diesel, heating oil and crude from its strategic reserves. In July it was still buying diesel to refill them. Germany’s reserve was meant for an emergency. It’s now dipping into it as winter starts. You can shut a refinery in a year. Building one takes most of a decade.