Hellenic stops buying Iranian crude

Greek refiner Hellenic Petroleum said it has stopped buying Iranian crude as unilateral US sanctions have made purchases impossible.

"The Iranian crude was effectively stopped in June," said Hellenic's chief financial officer Andreas Shiamishis. "We received the last two cargoes in May and June. They have been replaced by Urals, CPC, Saudi, so we have no issue in securing supplies."

Hellenic took receipt of a 1mn bl Iranian cargo at its Pachi terminal in early June, although other Mediterranean refiners have continued to receive Iranian crude into August. The firm said any credit lines it has open with Iran are "substantially less" than monies it owed under previous international sanctions levied in 2012. "Even though we would like to have the option of including Iranian crude in our slate, this is not something we can do," said Shiamishis. Iranian crude accounted for 19pc of Hellenic's slate in the second quarter of the year, down from a 23pc slice in the same period a year earlier.

Hellenic said its refining margin was $10.60/bl in April-June, flat on the year but up from $9.90/bl in the first quarter. But the company expects margins in July-September to increase with Shiamishis anticipating "a very strong quarter."

The firm owns three refineries in Greece: its 100,000 b/d Elefsis refinery the 83,000 b/d Thessaloniki facility and the 140,000 b/d Aspropyrgos unit.

The company is undergoing a partial privatisation process with five companies originally having expressed interest in taking a stake. This has now been trimmed down to two bidders qualifying for the second phase of the sale, said the firm.

Hellenic said it is operating its refineries at over nameplate capacity, without giving a specific crude run rate. As well as crude, the firm takes vacuum gasoil and other residual feedstock to boost output. It does offer an oil products output figure, which fell to 4.2mn t in April-June, down from 4.3mn t on the year, after some light maintenance at Elefsis and Thessaloniki. Half the company's output was middle distillates, with 22pc gasoline, 12pc fuel oil, 11pc naphtha and 6pc LPG.

Hellenic is unlikely to carry out any more works after it brought forward planned maintenance at its Elefsis unit — originally scheduled for this year — after an unplanned shutdown in July last year.

The firm reported an adjusted profit — less inventory effects and non-operating items — of €128mn ($150mn) in the first half of the year, down from €224mn in the same period in 2017. Under IFRS accounting standards, Hellenic posted a €225mn profit, up by 34pc on January-June 2017.