On Friday, South Korea’s S-Oil Corp. estimated that in the third quarter of 2020, its refining margins would continue the recovery on the back of the easing of coronavirus-related restrictions.
In the third quarter, demand for oil products globally could recover that by the end of this year the demand could finish as much as 10 million bpd lower than last year.
In the second quarter of this year, S-Oil posted a KRW164.3 billion (USD136.84 million) of operating loss while the inventory-related loss minimized to KRW169 billion (USD140.7 million) from the previous quarter’s KRW721 billion (USD600.27 million).
Its crude distillation unit (CDU) in Ulsan was operated at 99.8% of the nameplate capacity of 669,000 bpd in the second quarter, up from 93.4% in the previous quarter.
In the upcoming months, the company’s No.1 CDU is planned to be shut in the third quarter while in June and July, S-Oil will close its No.2 residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) for maintenance.
