Ampol has delivered growth of 2.4 per cent in its convenience retail earnings, while reporting a drop in first-quarter output from its Lytton refinery.
The company’s convenience retail earnings were slightly ahead of the same quarter last year, with shop income growing year on year with improved gross margins and growth in sales excluding tobacco.
“Improved fuel margins more than mitigated lower fuel sales volumes, largely in base grade gasoline, in a higher input price environment,” the company stated.
Ampol reported a drop of 7.3 per cent in its Lytton refinery production, down to 1,381 million litres from 1,490 million litres in the prior corresponding period.
The drop in output could be attributed to reduced crack spreads, a refinery-wide steam outage, and geopolitical tensions in the Red Sea in which Houthi rebels attacked commercial vessels, disrupting global oil supplies.
“During the quarter, Singapore refined product cracks reduced by approximately US$4 per barrel (on a weighted average basis) compared with the same time last year, while higher product freight rates (net of landed crude costs) benefited LRM this quarter.
“Production levels were impacted by the previously communicated refinery-wide steam outage and the temporary delay in supply of catalyst for the Alkylation Unit due to disruptions in the Red Sea.”
To stay up to date on the latest industry headlines, sign up to the C&I e-newsletter.