MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66 reported a wider-than-expected loss on Friday, as rising oil prices and lower fuel demand hit the US refiner's marketing and specialties business, reported Reuters.
While crude prices rallied more than 20% in the last quarter, driven by optimism over the development of COVID-19 vaccines, refiners struggled with uneven demand for fuel and related products as fresh lockdowns due to a resurgence in COVID-19 infections threatened that recovery.
Consumption of liquid fuels globally is estimated to have fallen by 9 million barrels per day in 2020, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration. Data also shows that travel on U.S. roads also fell 11% in November from the year-ago period, after a 9% drop in October.
Like rival Valero, Phillips 66 also expects COVID-19 vaccination efforts to boost economic recovery.
Phillips 66 said realized marketing fuel margins declined 38.6% in the fourth quarter to USD1.37 per barrel in the United States, and were down 19.3% at USD5.07 per barrel internationally, on a sequential basis.
The Marketing and Specialties segment sells gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel through various outlets.
Refined product exports in the reported quarter also fell to 103,000 barrels per day (bpd) from prior quarter's 139,000 bpd.
The company reported adjusted net loss of USD507 million, or USD1.16 per share, up from USD1 million, or 1 cent per share, in the third quarter.
Analysts were expecting a loss of USD1.06 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES.
As MRC wrote before, in October 2020, US refiner Phillips 66 said it plans to reconfigure its refinery in Rodeo, California to produce renewable fuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oils.
We remind that US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
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