Oil refiner Frontier Oil Corp. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profit declined 17 percent on the absence of strong gasoline and diesel margins and a higher inventory loss.
Quarterly earnings fell to $52.4 million, or 47 cents per share, versus $63 million, or 55 cents per share, in the prior year.
The company said the year-ago period benefited from strong gasoline and diesel crack spreads after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Those spreads are the difference between the cost of the crude oil a refiner buys and the end product he refines from that feedstock. The gasoline crack spread averaged a robust $7.96 for the current quarter compared with $8.59 in 2005. The diesel crack spread also remained strong at $20.21 for the current quarter, compared with $24.69 in the previous year.
Frontier saw its inventory loss climb to $24 million from $14.3 million.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted net income of 55 cents per share.
Revenue dipped 5 percent to $1.09 billion from $1.15 billion.
For the year, earnings rose 38 percent to $379.3 million, or $3.37 per share, compared with $275.2 million, or $2.42 per share, in 2005.
Full-year revenue increased 20 percent to $4.8 billion from $4 billion.
AP
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