IN AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE margins, Thailand's top refiner aims to reduce its imports of Middle Eastern crude while increasing the amount of unconventional crude in its feedstock slate. "Our slogan now is we don't care what crude types we use. We must look at various types of crudes to improve margins," said Pongpun Amornvivat, Thai Oil's corporate commercial planning manager. Amornvivat added that the firm plans to "aggressively" raise the amount of unconventional crudes it processes this year. Middle Eastern grades accounted for 80 of Thai Oil's crude imports last year, down from 90 in 2009. The company was able to improve its refining profit in 2010 by 48jzi/bbl, due largely to greater use of alternative crude grades, primarily medium-heavy Russian ESPO.
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