Australian fuel marketer and refiner Ampol has posted a higher Lytton refinery margin (LRM) for October, and November month-to-date Singapore product cracks have also increased.
The LRM reached $13.78/bl in October, the firm told the UBS Australasia conference in Sydney on 11 November, up by 7pc from $12.85/bl in September and above the July-September average of $10.64/bl it posted in its third quarter results.
Output reached 101,000 b/d in October, up by 17pc from the July-September average of 86,000 b/d because Ampol capitalised on improving products cracks, on the back of global outages that tightened the supply balance, the firm said.
Sanctions on Russian crude and attacks on refining infrastructure have impacted supply side, while Ampol's 109,000 b/d Lytton refinery's crude types have been less affected by increased demand from both new refining capacity and changes to sanctions.
Investment bank RBC Capital Markets analysis has forecast LRM at $9.70/bl for 2026, noting that refining remains positive due to a tight market, potential sanctions and outages. Reductions in refinery capacity are outpacing additions for conventional fuels and margins likely to be supported into the first half of 2026, RBC said.
