Unipetrol profits up on margins, petchems: UpdateOREANDA-NEWS. April 24, 2015. Czech oil company Unipetrol's profits more than doubled on the year to 2bn Czech koruna (\\$78mn) in the first quarter, supported by higher refining volumes and margins as well as strong petrochemical sales, the company said today.

The company' profits rose despite a decline in revenues as a result of lower oil product prices, which fell by 16pc to less than 24bn Czech koruna.

Unipetrol, which has a 67.56pc stake in the Ceska Rafinerska refining company that operates the 103,000 b/d Litvinov refinery and 63,000 b/d Kralupy refinery, increased its refining volumes in the first quarter by 10pc on the year to 101,200 b/d. The increase in volumes was partially a result of an increased stake in Ceska Rafinerska in January 2014 after the acquisition of a 16.3pc stake from Shell. Unipetrol was not operating Shell capacity in Ceska Rafinerska in Jnauray last year.

Refining volumes in the first quarter were impacted by a planned shutdown of the Kralupy refinery in the second half of March. For this reason refining volumes were down by nearly 5pc down from the fourth quarter of 2014.

Unipetrol expects to take full ownership of Ceska Rafinerska later this month following a deal to acquire the remaining stake from Italian firm Eni.

Unipetrol said its profits were additionally boosted by a strong performance by its petrochemical business, particularly from the production facility in Litvinov. The company said its overall petrochemical sales rose by 1pc on the year to 446,000t. But the product mix has become more favourable to Unipetrol because of high demand for polymers and force majeure closures at some of its competitors' operations in Europe. As a result of the increased sales of higher margin products, Unipetrol's Litvinov steam cracker operated at a utilisation rate of 95pc in the first quarter compared to an average of less than 90pc last year. This pushed Unipetrol's polyethylene sales up by 17pc on the year to 86,000t, while polypropylene increased by 10pc on year to 75,000t in the first quarter.

Polish firm PKN Orlen — which owns 62.99pc stake in Unipetrol — said today that demand and margins for petrochemical products remains strong in April. PKN Orlen chief financial officer Slawomir Jedrzejczyk said a weak Euro against the US dollar helps lift European demand for petrochemical products. He added that PKN expects petrochemical demand to remain strong in the mid-term.