炼油商目前在给工厂升级，以便在加工轻质低硫原油之外，也能加工重质高硫原油。目前重质高硫油的供应量在增多，而随着世界依赖的油田渐趋干涸，轻质低硫原油产量在萎缩。

　　Refiners are updating their plants so that they can process heavy, sour crude oil, which is now increasingly in supply, as well as the light, sweet crude oil, whose volumes are dwindling as oil fields on which the world has come to rely run dry.

　　德勤咨询(Deloitte Consulting)高级独立能源顾问约瑟夫·斯坦尼斯拉夫(Joseph Stanislaw)说：“人们的担忧与夏季有关。消费者仍在驾车并使用汽油，而目前汽油的主要原料轻质油供应却不充裕。”

　　Joseph Stanislaw, senior independent energy adviser to Deloitte Consulting, said: “The fears are related to the summer time. Consumers are still driving and using petrol and the light crude oils that produce a higher proportion of petrol are not in abundant supply.”

　　石油生产国开发重质原油油田的动作，比新炼油厂的增加速度更快，上周沙特阿拉伯的行动就说明了这一点。沙特降低了重质油的价格，同时提高了其轻质原油的价格。

　　The move by oil producers to develop heavy oil fields more quickly than new refinery units are being added was illustrated by Saudi Arabia this week. It cut the price of its heavier oil and raised the price of its light oil.

　　但目前油价高企也是人们的忧虑所导致。人们担心，在当前世界的应急石油供应缓冲余地十分小的情况下，地缘政治的紧张态势可能会中断石油供应。

　　But high oil prices are also being caused by fears that geopolitical tensions could interrupt oil flows when the world has only a slim cushion of emergency supplies.