The New Zealand Refinery Company Ltd, operator of New Zealand's only oil refinery, said its refining margins were relatively healthy in May and June but it is too early to predict a sustained recovery.The operator of the Marsden Point refinery said a mont
The New Zealand Refinery Company Ltd, operator of New Zealand's only oil refinery, said its refining margins were relatively healthy in May and June but it is too early to predict a sustained recovery.
The operator of the Marsden Point refinery said a month-long planned shutdown of the hydro cracker and crude distillation unit number two was successfully completed on May 30 and all processing units are back on-line and are operating at full capacity.
The company's ability to upgrade lower cost feedstock into high value products was limited during the shutdown. This affected the average gross refinery margin for the two-month period, which was $US3.83 (NZ5.35) per barrel, down from $US5.55 per barrel in the March to April period.
Refinery margins are currently in the $US4 to $US6 range.
"Despite this positive trend, in our opinion, it is still too soon to say whether this reflects a sustained recovery in refining margins," the company said in a statement to NZX.
The refinery processed 6.4 million barrels in the two month period. At an average exchange rate of US69.42c the processing fee earned for the two-month period was $NZ24.6 million.
In 2009 the company experienced refining margins around $US12 per barrel but by the end of the year they slumped to around $US1 per barrel. This was exacerbated by the volatile United States to New Zealand dollar exchange rate.
Aotea Energy Ltd, a company owned by New Zealander's through the Infratil-NZ Super Fund consortium has replaced Shell as a 17.1 percent shareholder in the refinery.
At its last annual meeting the company said the refinery was built 46 years ago to a Shell design using Shell engineering expertise and Shell continued to provide technical expertise and guidance.
