Refiner Phillips 66 profit beats as chemicals unit outperforms

FAN Editor
The Phillips 66 gas station in Superior
The Phillips 66 gas station in Superior, Colorado, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

April 27, 2018

(Reuters) – U.S. oil refiner Phillips 66<PSX.N> posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, helped by a 28 percent rise in net income from its chemicals unit.

The refiner’s chemicals joint venture with Chevron Corp had fully recovered from Hurricane Harvey and contributed to first-quarter earnings, Chief Executive Greg Garland said.

The U.S. shale boom has opened enormous reservoirs of cheap natural gas, a raw material for chemicals and plastics. The chemicals unit’s net income rose to $232 million from $181 million.

However, earnings from the company’s main refining business fell nearly 65 percent to $91 million.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.04 per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of 89 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Rival Valero Energy Corp <VLO.N> reported quarterly results on Thursday and attributed its better-than-expected profit to higher refining margins.

(Reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

US businesses raise pay at fastest pace in 11 years

U.S. private-sector workers received the biggest pay raise in 11 years in the first three months of the year, a sign that the tight job market is slowly lifting wages. The Labor Department said Friday that its employment cost index shows wages and salaries in the private sector rose 1 […]