S-Oil chalked up its best-ever business performance in the second quarter of this year.
The achievement is owed to greater refining margins, influenced by insufficient supply, caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
S-Oil predicts that refining margins will maintain a strong trend on the back of the continuity of insufficient supply in the second half of the year.
S-Oil said on June 28 that the refining company posted 11,442.4 billion won in Q2 sales, a 70.5 percent year-on-year jump over last year’s 6,711 billion won. S-Oil renewed its best-ever quarterly performance in 2022 Q1.
The company chalked up 9,287 billion won in sales and 1,332 billion won in operating profit.
As a result, S-Oil logged 20,729.4 billion won in sales and 3,053.9 billion won in operation profit in the first six months of the year.
The refining company’s Q2 business performance topped the market consensus.
Figures, released by the financing information company FnGuide, showed that securities companies had forecast S-Oil would log 10,864.7 billion won in sales and 899.2 billion won in operating profit in Q2.
The refining company said the strong refining margin was retained on the back of insufficient supply, caused by geopolitical issues like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the restructuring of refining facilities amid demand returning to normal in the wake of easing public health restrictions.
It was also influenced by Q2 stockpile valuation profit coupled with crude oil hikes. S-Oil posted Q2 stockpile valuation profit at 357.9 billion won.
By business, the refining business posted 9,252.1 billion won in sales and 1,445.1 billion won in operating profit.
Rising regional refining margins were influenced by restricted supply, caused by restrictions against Russian oil and China’s declining exports, plus strong demand stemming from the recovery of the COVID pandemic.
Gasoline, kerosine and aircraft oil spread had surged on the back of severely tight supply and lower stockpile.
The petrochemical business chalked up 1,302.3 billion won in sales and 18 billion won in operating profit.
The spread of para-Xylene rose on the back of the rising demand of aromatic half-finished products, designed to raise production of gasoline and restricted supply, caused by disrupted operation and regular maintenance.
The demand recovery of polypropylene (PP) and propylene oxide (PO) was restricted by China’s lockdowns. The spread of PP rose due to declining operation rate while the spread of PO maintained a gradual trend.
The lubricant business posted 888 billion won in sales and 258.9 billion won in operating profit.
The business saw operating profit improve on the back of sound demand, coupled with seasonal demand, and tightly supply situation, coupled with rising production of kerosine versus lubricant.
The spread of lubricants expanded by belatedly reflecting raw material price hikes to its product prices.
S-Oil is predicted to see refining margins in the Asian region readjusted downward in the 3rd quarter, but the upcoming business situation is forecast to improve compared to the previous one due to the tight supply of global refining facilities.
In particular, the spread of kerosine is expected to slow until heating demand rises in winter, but it is likely to recover to the pre-levels of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine in the wake of China’s declining exports.
Insufficient refining facilities are expected to be retained for some time, and a favorable supply situation ensued in the wake of massive restructuring of refining facilities, conducted amid the pandemic period.
Investments in new facilities had shrunken in the wake of greenhouse gas emission reduction and energy transition trends.
Net profit, coupled with this year’s business performance, will be utilized as money to secure sustainable growth engines and invest in energy transition opportunities.
S-Oil is implementing the “Shaheen Project”, a second phase petrochemical project designed to expand the existing petrochemical business, they said.
