Dear Pat, The price of gas in Canada is still high. Yet the crude oil price is still under $50. The gap between the two seems wider than usual, which would indicate someone is making a higher profit. Is there a company, preferably Canadian, which is more involved in refining than in crude production? For most of the large oil companies (Imperial Oil, for instance), the extra refining profit will probably be offset by losses from crude oil production, so I think a company that does a lot of refining is going to do well this quarter. Thanks for your help.
Two major U.S. refinery stocks are Tesoro and Valero. There are no purely Canadian refiners that we see as worthwhile investments.
Valero Energy, $20.08, symbol VLO on New York (Shares outstanding: 516.3 million; Market cap: $10.4 billion), is the largest petroleum refiner in the United States. Valero owns a combined 16 refineries in the U.S., Canada and Aruba. It also has a network of about 5,800 retail outlets. Valero’s refinery throughput is about 3 million barrels a day.
The recession and falling demand for gasoline have lowered Valero’s volumes. This, in turn, has hurt the company’s revenue and profits. However, falling gasoline prices have been offset by falling crude oil prices; by matching its crude oil purchases with its production, Valero has maintained steady profit margins. Moreover, Valero’s plants are among the industry’s most efficient, and demand will eventually improve, likely in 2010. Meanwhile, the shares yield 3.0%.
Valero is okay to hold.
Tesoro Corp., $14.33, symbol TSO on New York (Shares outstanding:…
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