Foreign crude pumps Petrotrin’s $1.3B

The company was able to boost its earnings and maintain crude throughput by sourcing crude from West Africa, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia.

The figure exceeded the previous year’s net income of $300 million, culminating in the seventh consecutive year of profit for refining and marketing, according to general manager, refining, Louie Forde at a presentation held recently by the Ministry of Energy. As a result, all carried forward losses have been exhausted and the refinery is paying taxes at a rate of 55 percent, he said.

The forces of demand and supply, he noted, have continued to keep prices at record high levels, noting the fiscal year under review was dominated by high prices internationally with prices averaging US$ 53 per barrel.

These record-breaking high oil prices, he said, were due mainly to strong economic growth and resultant strong demand, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, limited production and refining capacity, tight inventories and tight sweet crude markets and geopolitical supply risk and market psychology.

For refining and marketing, he said the impact was positive as Petrotrin’s gross margin averaged US$7.86 a barrel for fiscal 2004/2005.

A notable achievement was the successful upgrade and turnaround of the No 8 CDU, the refinery’s main crude distiller which resulted in improved yields and throughput as well as improved energy efficiency on the unit, he said.

Refining utilisation at the refinery was 71.6 percent, 18.6 percent higher than the previous year of 58.3 percent. A peak refining utilisation of 82 percent was achieved in January. Net income for the year was a profit of $1.3 billion, compared to $300 billion in the previous year.

During the year, the company, he said, continued work on several strategic initiatives to ensure the long-term viability of refining and marketing, including gasoline enhancement, gas to liquids and premium market growth.