The listed company told the NZX on Friday afternoon that its Northland refinery processed 39.3 million barrels of crude (38.9 million in 2004) and pumped 2.8 million cubic metres of finished product down the pipeline to the greater Auckland region (2.7 million cubic metres in 2004).
Company chairman Ian Farrant said the outstanding result was due to a combination of high international refining margins and a world-class operating performance at Marsden Point. But he said refining margins were extremely difficult to predict in the current global environment.
"It would be wrong to assume that margins as we have seen them over the last two years will remain at such levels in the long term . . . it is important for the company to have excellent asset availability and a cost structure that makes the company viable at all times during the highs and lows of business cycles," he said.
Chief executive Thomas Zengerly said the successful completion of the products pipeline upgrade, the NZ$180 million Future Fuels project that would deliver cleaner fuels for New Zealand motorists, and the project to investigate increasing the refinery’s capacity were highlights of the year.
Royal Dutch Shell, UOP and WorleyParsons last month started the NZ$25 million front-end engineering and design study into the feasibility of an NZ$500 million expansion project to increase the refinery’s crude oil intake by about 20%.
This would reduce its dependence on imported residue for hydrocracking and blend stocks.
A decision on whether to proceed with the three-year long project is due by the end of this year.
Zengerly said the refinery also achieved more than 2.5 million manhours without a lost-time incident, and significantly improved its environmental performance.
The board declared a final fully imputed dividend of 22.5 cents per share, taking total dividends for the year to 32.5 cents per share, after adjusting for the 10-for-1 share split last October.
Farrant said the company would use retained profits to retire debt and help position the company for future major capital works.
NZRC is majority owned by the big four New Zealand retail oil companies – Shell, BP, Mobil, and Caltex.
