Yahoo Business News: Shell Malaysia: Refining Margin To Stay Strong Near Term: “sweet and sour crude…”: Tuesday 14 June 2005

KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Shell Malaysia Chairman Jon Chadwick said Tuesday that he expects refining margins at Shell's refinery unit to remain strong in the near term.

"First quarter was excellent and this bodes well for the rest of the year," Chadwick told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the Asia Oil and Gas Conference being held here.

According to Chadwick, Shell Refining Co. (4324.KU) recorded a complex refining margin of $5.69 a barrel in the first quarter, up from $4.55/bbl in the same period last year.

This boosted the bottom-line of the unit, which posted a fifth consecutive quarterly record profit in the first three months of 2005.

Chadwick attributed this to the refinery's flexibility in being able to run sweet and sour crude, as well as cracking lower-priced residual fuel into higher value refined products.

Shell Refining has a nameplate capacity of 156,000 barrels-a-day, but its operational capacity is 125,000 b/d.

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