Phillips 66 third-quarter profit misses on lower refining margins - Reuters
Phillips 66 third-quarter profit misses on lower refining margins | Reuters
Phillips 66 third-quarter profit misses on lower refining margins
A view of the Phillips 66 Company's Los Angeles Refinery (foreground), which processes domestic & imported crude oil into gasoline, aviation and diesel fuels, and storage tanks for refined petroleum products at the Kinder Morgan Carson Terminal (background), at sunset in Carson, California, U.S., March 11, 2022. REUTERS/Bing... Acquire Licensing Rights
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Oct 27 (Reuters) - Phillips 66 (PSX.N) reported a third-quarter profit on Friday that missed analysts' estimates, hurt by lower refining margins on easing demand following the peak summer season.
Oil prices, which have been trading well below last year's high, squeezed margins in the quarter. The 3-2-1 crack spread , a proxy for refining margins, fell around 35% during the period.
Phillips 66's realized margins fell to $18.96 per barrel in the third quarter from $26.87 per barrel a year earlier.
Rival Valero Energy (VLO.N) said on Thursday its quarterly refining margins fell 8.2%.
Additionally, U.S. oil refiners that cranked up processing this year were being hit by outages weighing on their ability to rebuild thin fuel stockpiles, driving up fuel prices.
Phillips 66's crude utilization rate was 95% in the quarter, higher than last year's 91%, while total processed input rose to 1.95 million barrels per day (bpd) from 1.91 million bpd.
The refiner, which also raised its shareholder return target to a range of $13 billion to $15 billion, said on Friday it plans to generate $3 billion by monetizing non-core assets.
Phillips 66, which owns nine refineries and is a 50% co-owner of two others in the United States, said net cash flow from operating activities fell to $2.69 billion from $3.14 billion.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned $4.63 per share, compared with estimates of $4.76, according to LSEG data.
Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: petroleum
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