MOSCOW (MRC) -- US refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp has reported a smaller-than-expected first quarter loss helped by a jump in refining margin and COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, which drove a rebound in fuel demand, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The mass public vaccinations and easing travel restrictions over the last few months have helped fuel demand tick up from the record lows hit last year, lifting the outlook for refiners.
Marathon, which generated positive adjusted core earnings in its refining and marketing business for the first time since the pandemic began, saw its refining and marketing margins grow over 66% to USD10.16 per barrel from the previous quarter.
Rivals Phillips 66 and Valero Energy also saw their refining margins surge sequentially in the first quarter. However, Hennigan added that the industry continued to struggle with effects of the pandemic in the reported quarter.
The company's crude capacity utilization stood at 83% while total throughput or the amount of crude it processed in the quarter was 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 2.5 million bpd.
Marathon sees throughput of 2.68 million bpd in the second quarter.
As MRC reported earlier, most units were shut on Sunday night and Monday morning (15-16 February) at Marathon Petroleum Corp's 585,000 barrel-per-day Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, as temperatures plunged due to a Arctic cold front reaching the Gulf Coast. They resumed operations in the first half of March.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC