Petro Rabigh posts SR 658.1 million net loss for Q1

Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh), which has announced a net loss of SR 658.1 million for the first quarter, stated it will be performing maintenance work on the ethane cracker unit, which will lead to the shutdown of the unit as well as the units that are integrated to it.
The maintenance will start Monday, April 22, and will last until May 3 when gradual start-up for these units will take place, according to Tadawul website.
This shutdown is expected to have an impact on the financial results for the second quarter of 2013, and further developments will be announced as they occur, Petro Rabigh added while releasing its interim financial results for the three-month period ended March 31.
Its SR 658.1 million first quarter net loss was versus SR 115.8 million net profit for the same quarter for the previous year, and versus SR 68.1 million net profit for the previous quarter.
The gross loss for the first quarter is SR 448.5 million versus SR 381.5 million gross profit for the same quarter of the previous year.
The operational loss for the first quarter is SR 628.5 million versus SR 151.4 million operational profit for the same quarter of the previous year.
Loss per share during the 3 months is SR 0.75 per share versus SR 0.13 earnings per share for the same period of the previous year.
The reason for the loss during the first quarter of 2013 versus the same period of the previous year was due to the emergency maintenance and repair work caused by the blackout incident of steam, water and power generating facilities from RAWEC, the provider company, and due to the planned maintenance work of the complex as well.
Furthermore, Petro Rabigh said the loss was higher than expected due to the extension of the maintenance period for the ethane cracker unit and the high olefin fluid catalytic cracking unit (HOFCC).