Israel's oil refineries moves to third-quarter loss, signs supply deal
Israel's Oil Refineries (ORL) swung to a loss in the third quarter, hit by the coronavirus pandemic, and said it had signed a fuel supply deal with a customer outside of Israel.
ORL, Israel’s largest refining and petrochemicals group, said it lost $50 million in the July-September period compared with a $7 million profit a year earlier. Revenue dipped 39% to $990 million.
Its adjusted refining margin was $0.3 a barrel in the third quarter, compared with $6.3 a year earlier but above Reuters’ quoted Mediterranean Ural Cracking Margin of a negative $2.0.
ORL said despite the crisis it still was able to produce its essential products and prevent furloughs, but it continued to reduce costs while starting to implement a retirement plan during the quarter.
It added that in 2021, it will save as much as $45 million from natural gas purchases.
ORL also said its new fuel supply deal with the unnamed foreign customer would begin in 2021 and the customer has committed to make a down payment of between $80 million to $100 million, depending on oil prices.
Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Tova Cohen
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