Oil refiner HF Sinclair posts profit ahead of estimates on upbeat margins

By Arunima Kumar

(Reuters) - HF Sinclair beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by better-than-expected refining margins and throughput.

Bigger rivals Valero Energy, Marathon Petroleum and Phillips 66 also beat earnings expectations on the back of stronger margins.

U.S. refiners' earnings normalized throughout last year, after hitting sky-high levels in 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted crude supplies.

Fuel demand also held up as supplies remained tight on production cuts by OPEC+ countries despite an increase in global refining capacity.

"We think that the expectations on industry utilization are higher than what the industry is able to produce. And so, we're going to remain in the supply-constrained environment through the rest of 2024," HF Sinclair CEO Tim Go said on a call.

HF Sinclair's consolidated gross refining margin fell to $13.88 per barrel in the fourth quarter from $23.47 a year earlier, while refinery throughput fell marginally to 664,390 barrels per day (bpd).

However, both margin and throughput beat analysts' estimates.

"HF Sinclair reported a solid Q4 beat as better-than-expected refining throughput and West Coast margin capture drove a refining beat, that more than offset slight weakness in lubes and renewables," Piper Sandler analyst Ryan Todd said.

The company's utilization rate was 90.6% in the quarter, compared with 92.7% a year earlier.

"Liquid transportation fuels, in general, is bullish and refining margins, in particular, we're still very bullish," Go added.

For the first quarter, the company expects to run between 585,000 and 615,000 bpd of crude oil in its refining system and has a planned turnaround scheduled at Puget Sound refinery in Washington.

On an adjusted basis, HF Sinclair earned 87 cents per share, beating LSEG estimates of 72 cents per share.

The Dallas-based company, however, reported a loss of 34 cents per share in the quarter, compared with a profit of $2.92 per share a year earlier.

Its shares were down 1.3% in morning trade.

(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Shounak Dasgupta)