Ampol has provided an update on the company’s trading conditions for the third quarter of its 2024 financial year.
Its performance was impacted by the planned reformer turnaround and inspection (T&I) to the Lytton refinery which coincided with significant weakness in global finished and intermediate products margins. The reformer experienced performance issues following mechanical completion, requiring additional repair work in September.
Lytton Refiner Margin for the quarter was up US$1.48 per barrel. Refinery production for the quarter was 916 ML. The combined impact of the weaker refining margins, T&I and associated operating issues, together with the supply side responses to the disruptions, was approximately $100 million to Group RCOP EBIT.
“Notwithstanding the challenging global refining market and operational performance of Lytton, which has been impacted by a series of one-off events this year, the rest of the business continues to perform well and demonstrate its resilience,” says Ampol Managing Director and CEO Matt Halliday.
“We are confident in the steps we are taking at Lytton to enable stronger operational performance in 2025 which should coincide with the refiner margin impact of production run-costs currently being taken across the world.”
Ampol says its convenience retail network continued the strong first half performance, benefiting from favourable market conditions which translated to improved fuel margins and sales volumes. Shop performance was resilient, performing in line with the first half.
Similar dynamics were at play in New Zealand with sales volumes broadly in line with first half averages.
