the valero refinery next to the houston ship channel is seen in houston texas us may 5 2019 reutersloren elliottfile photo april 26 reuters  valero energy corp vlon on tuesday reported a firstquarter profit compared to a yearago loss as the us refiner benefited from strong refining margin and higher demand for fuel and refined products global fuel demand rebounded to near prepandemic levels while overall crude oil supplies tightened due to the russiaukraine war boosting margins in the sale of gasoline and diesel refiners have also benefited from a surge in natural gas prices in europe which has reduced distillate inventories worldwide read more valero the first major us refiner to post quarterly results said its quarterly refining margin more than doubled to 321 billion from a year earlier the fundamentals that drove strong results in the first quarter particularly in march continue to provide a positive backdrop for refining margins chief executive officer joe gorder said in a statement net profit attributable to the companys stockholders was 905 million or 221 per share for the three months ended march 31 compared with a loss of 704 million or 173 per share in the yearago quarter reporting by rithika krishna in bengaluru editing by shailesh kuber