{"id":21194,"date":"2023-04-24T09:28:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T09:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-oil-refiners-to\/"},"modified":"2023-04-24T09:29:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T09:29:35","slug":"u-s-oil-refiners-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-oil-refiners-to\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. oil refiners to post strong Q1 earnings, but demand outlook dims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Laura Sanicola<\/p>\n<p>(Reuters) &#8211;     U.S. fuelmakers are expected to post higher first-quarter earnings in coming days on strong fuel exports and margins even as domestic diesel demand slumped during the period. <\/p>\n<p>Refiners have been riding a wave of favorable pricing and demand as pandemic-era closings boosted margins. Alternating periods of higher demand for products have also helped, with jet fuel recently sprinting higher as diesel fell off. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s looking like another really strong quarter for U.S. refiners and their balance sheets are in great shape, but in the second quarter things are really starting to come down,&#8221; said Matthew Blair, refining analyst at Tudor Pickering Holt and Co.<\/p>\n<p>Valero Energy, the second-largest U.S. refiner by capacity, kicks off earnings on Wednesday with per share profit expected to more than triple to $7.23, based on the mean estimate of 17 analysts compiled by Refinitiv, compared to $2.31 per share a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Top U.S. refiner by volume Marathon Petroleum is forecast to show a per share profit of $5.71 compared to $1.49 a year ago, while Phillips 66 could deliver a $3.60 per share, compared to $1.32 a year ago, according to Refinitiv. Both are scheduled to report in early May.<\/p>\n<p>Exxon Mobil this month signaled its refining profits could reach $3.55 billion for the period compared $332 million a year ago, which was hurt by high maintenance costs.  <\/p>\n<p>Forecasts of a weaker second quarter reflect declining exports and capacity increases in Asia, the Middle East and U.S. Gulf Coast, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. refining crack spread, a proxy for profit from processing a barrel of oil into fuels, is hovering around $30 per barrel, $10 lower than a year ago, Refinitiv data showed. <\/p>\n<p>The four-week average of U.S. distillate product supplied, a proxy for demand, has remained below the five year average for most of the first quarter, according to the U.S. Energy Information administration. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Longer term demand concerns continue to weigh on refiners,&#8221; Jefferies bank analysts wrote in a research note, pointing to projected lower industrial activity in OECD member countries being only partially offset by China.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Laura Sanicola; Editing by David Gregorio)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-oil-refiners-to\/file-photo-an-aerial-view-of-exxon-mobils-beaumont-oil\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N08M-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N08M-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Laura Sanicola (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. fuelmakers are expected to post higher first-quarter earnings in coming days on strong fuel exports and margins even as domestic diesel demand slumped during the period. Refiners have been riding a wave of favorable pricing and demand as pandemic-era closings boosted margins. Alternating periods of higher demand for products [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-21194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N08M-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21196,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21194\/revisions\/21196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}