Exxon, Royal Dutch start losing safety net as refining margins squeezed
Bloomberg reported that refining profits that buttressed earnings for Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc as crude prices plunged are now slumping, further pressuring all of the world’s biggest oil companies as they move into 2016.
According to its website, global refining margins, the estimated profit from turning oil into gasoline and diesel, fell 34 percent in the fourth quarter, the steepest decline in eight years, to USD 13.20 a barrel. Every USD 1 drop cuts BP’s pretax adjusted earnings by USD 500 million a year.
The companies face a squeeze on processing profits as a mild winter curbs demand for heating oil and diesel, creating huge stockpiles in the U.S. and Europe. That’s a reverse from the past two years, a period when refining earnings doubled, and kicks away one of the remaining buffers for integrated oil giants grappling with crude prices at a 12-year low.
Mr Iain Reid, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd. in London, said that “It’s a bit of a double whammy, lower oil prices and refining margins starting to weaken. The safety net is still there, but there are some holes in it now.”
Data compiled analysts have cut their Q4 2015 and first-quarter 2016 adjusted earnings per share forecasts in the past month for Exxon, Shell, Total SA, Eni SpA, Statoil ASA and Repsol SA.
Source : Bloomberg