KUALA LUMPUR: Shell Refining Company (Federation of Malaya) Bhd expects its refining margins to remain positive in the second half of this year despite the current high crude oil prices, its chairman Datuk Saw Choo Boon said yesterday.

Nevertheless, he said, the refining margins (the difference between crude oil and refined product prices) are not likely to match those recorded in the first quarter this year.

“I cannot guarantee that the refining margins for the rest of the year will be similar to the first quarter but I believe that it will still be positive,” he told reporters after the companys annual general meeting here. Its unit refining margin for the first quarter ended March 31 this year was over US$6.00 per barrel.

In 2007, the average margin Shell Refining recorded was US$5.79 per barrel compared with Singapore’s margin of US$4.14 per barrel, driven mainly by the companys long residue catalytic cracking unit configuration with its ability to process a variety of crudes.

Saw, however, said that its refining margins may come under pressure if the oil prices continued to rise.

“Any changes in oil prices will have impact on the company’s financial results. But we will make sure that we can optimise our choice of crude diet, then we can at least maximise our output and the value of output as well as trying to put our cost as low as possible,” he said. — Bernama