A fire at Giant Industries Inc.'s Yorktown, Va., refinery contributed to a first-quarter loss of $12.4 million compared with a net profit of $10.1 million, or 80 cents per share in the same quarter last year, the oil refiner reported.
Net revenues for the quarter increased to $863 million from $711.7 million a year earlier.
The refinery was shut down for approximately two months following the November 2005 fire. Yorktown operated at about two-thirds capacity for most of the quarter, but another unit within the facility did not return to operation until mid-April, according to company CEO Fred Holliger. As a result, Yorktown only sold about 33,000 barrels per day compared with approximately 63,000 barrels per day in first-quarter 2005.
Giant Industries completed repairs on the units damaged by the fire and an upgrade project that should increase the company's yield from the fluid catalytic cracker unit, Holliger said in a May 3 statement.
Holliger indicated that operations are back to normal. "Refining margins at the Four Corners refineries and Yorktown refinery are currently higher than the same time last year," he said. "We continue to believe that strong product demand coupled with refining capacity constraints support a positive second-quarter outlook for the industry as well as the remainder of 2006.
IW 50 Best Manufacturing Company
