VLO - Phillips 66 sees refineries running in mid-90s in Q2 outpacing rivals

2023-05-03 15:57:29 ET

Phillips 66 ( NYSE: PSX ) +2% in Wednesday's trading after easily beating Q1 adjusted earnings estimates, boosted by strong margins from sustained fuel demand and tight crude supplies.

Q1 net income improved to $1.96B, or $4.20/share, from $1.88B in Q4 2022 and $582M in the year-earlier quarter.

The company said Q1 realized margins rose to $20.72/bbl from $19.73/bbl in Q4 2022 and $10.83/bbl in last year's Q1.

Q1 adjusted pre-tax profit by segment: Refining down 1% Q/Q to $1.61B, Midstream flat Q/Q at $678M, Marketing and specialties down 21% to $426M, Chemicals up by nearly 4x at $198M.

Phillips 66 ( PSX ) plans to run its 11 refineries in the mid-90% range of their combined crude oil capacity of 1.9M bbl/day in Q2, CFO Kevin Mitchell said on the company's post-earnings conference call .

The company's refineries operated at 93% of capacity in Q1, well above the expected mid-80s executives had forecast in January.

Phillips 66's ( PSX ) Q2 utilization forecast was above those from Marathon Petroleum ( MPC ), the biggest U.S. refiner, and Valero Energy ( VLO ), which guided for a 91% utilization rate and a rate in the 91%-93%, respectively.

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