Australian refiner and marketer Ampol's margins at its 109,000 b/d Lytton refinery in Brisbane soared to $14.90/bl in the first quarter, boosting its quarterly earnings to the second-highest on record.
Ampol reported a higher Lytton Refiner Margin (LMR) of $14.90/bl in the first quarter, up by 27pc from $11.75/bl in October-December 2022 and by 41pc from $10.59/bl a year earlier. The firm posted a net income of A$345mn ($228mn) in January-March, up by 82pc on the year. But Ampol said Singapore refined product cracks across all products have softened since the end of March. This could pressureshort-term global demand for products and raise imports from China, which is likely to issue 10mn t (81mn bl) of export quotas this month.
LMR peaked at $22.35/bl in January-June 2022 and has risen significantly from an average of $5.90/bl a year earlier, partly because of the federal government's refinery production payment that was introduced at the start of 2021 to support Australia's two remaining facilities.
The Lytton refinery produced 1.49bn litres in January-March, down by 5.7pc from volumes in October-December 2022 but up by 5.5pc from a year earlier. Ampol reported that an ongoing repair to a slide valve of a fluid catalytic cracking unit is on schedule, and has not caused any disruptions to supply to customers. The unit is due to return to service early in May.
Ampol's total group fuel sales volume rose by 50pc on theyear to 6.9bn litres, boosted by the firm's $1.37bn purchase of New Zealand Z Energy in 2022. Australian fuel sales increased by 14pc, with Ampol reporting growth across petrol, diesel and jet fuel owing to increased transport demand post-Covid, continuing recovery in the aviation industry and the return of net migration to Australia. International sales volumes for January-March grew by 56pc, which Ampol attributed to well-timed third-party spot sales.
