New Delhi, July 22 -- Worried that gas prices at the pump will spike again as Middle East hostilities resume? You should be. However, rising crude oil prices alone don't automatically translate into higher gasoline prices at the pump - the equation is not that straightforward.

The bigger concern right now is the "crack spread"-the gap between the cost of crude oil and the gasoline it's refined into. It has now climbed above 2022 levels, when the Russia-Ukraine war and post-pandemic demand pushed oil prices to 14-year highs.

Refiners take in raw crude oil at the prices mentioned in the headlines and then 'crack' it into usable petroleum products. Now, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have their own trading prices, and the profit that oil re...