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Message: MRC Margins

MRC Margins

posted on Dec 23, 2008 04:58AM

This article doesn't bode well for MRC's performance:



Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Profits from turning a barrel of crude into oil products are the worst since the first quarter amid waning demand for gasoline and other fuels, according to BP Plc data.

BP’s Global Indicator Margin, a broad measure of refining profitability, has averaged $4.84 a barrel so far this quarter through to Dec. 18, compared with $5.69 in the year-ago quarter, and $4.57 in the first quarter, Europe’s second-biggest oil company said on its Web site. Global margins have dropped 40 percent since the third quarter, and almost 80 percent in the U.S. Midwest.

The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter at a 0.5 percent annual pace as the now year-old recession began to intensify, the Commerce Department said today. Consumers are cutting spending on travel and goods derived from oil, sometimes pushing wholesale gasoline below the price of the crude from which it is made.

Northwest European refiners earned $7.76 a barrel so far this quarter, the most of the six regions surveyed, followed by the Mediterranean at $5.15, according to London-based BP.

The lowest margins were in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Midwest, at $2.30 and $2.20, respectively. Those two regions had the highest profit margins in the third quarter.


Dec 23, 2008 05:46AM

Dec 23, 2008 06:24AM

Dec 23, 2008 07:25AM
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