OREANDA-NEWS. February 07, 2014. LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE: LYB) announced earnings from continuing operations for the fourth quarter 2013 of USD1,177 million, or USD 2.11 per share. Fourth-quarter 2013 EBITDA was USD 1,543 million. Full year 2013 income from continuing operations was USD 3,860 million, or USD 6.76 per share.

"We achieved record earnings in 2013, capped by the best fourth-quarter results in our history," said CEO Jim Gallogly.  "Our performance for the quarter and the year continued a pattern of solid financial results  built on our back-to-basics strategy and supplemented with high return growth projects. During the quarter, we completed the methanol restart project at Channelview, Texas. This project and other announced projects focus on capturing additional advantages from U.S. shale gas ahead of our competition," he said.

"We advanced our cash deployment strategy in 2013; we increased the quarterly interim dividend over the year by 50 percent to \\$0.60 per share and initiated a share repurchase program. Shareholders realized a total stock return of 45 percent in 2013 versus the S&P 500 return of 32 percent," Gallogly said.
OUTLOOK
"The fundamentals supporting our businesses have remained strong. The U.S. natural gas liquids advantage continues to evolve in a very positive way, and we are executing our growth projects rapidly to take advantage of these market opportunities. We believe olefins in North America will continue to benefit from strong margins created by cost-advantaged NGLs.  We will commence an olefins turnaround at La Porte late in the first quarter which will extend into the second quarter. European olefins and polyolefins demand should improve from a seasonally-low fourth quarter," Gallogly said.

"Intermediates and Derivatives continues to realize solid, steady performance and will additionally benefit from the methanol restart. The global refining market has been volatile, but improving of late. We expect that our refining position should strengthen in 2014 as North American crude production grows and the delivery infrastructure expands," Gallogly said.