Phillips 66 Posts High Quarterly Earnings With Many Projects on the Way

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--By all accounts, energy major Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) (Houston, Texas) had a good second quarter this year, posting net earnings of $1.3 billion, compared with $569 million in the second quarter of 2017. The company's holdings in midstream companies Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP) and DCP Midstream LP (NYSE:DPM) (Denver, Colorado) gave a boost to income, as did its refining segment, which boasted 100% capacity utilization during the quarter and brought in net income of $910 million.

In a conference call regarding the quarter, Chief Executive Officer Greg Garland discussed many of the company's projects. "Our Midstream organization is moving forward with two major growth projects: construction of the Gray Oak Pipeline and expansion of the Sweeny Hub," he said. "Phillips 66 Partners recently completed expansion open season for the Gray Oak Pipeline. Gray Oak will provide crude oil transportation from the Permian and Eagle Ford to Texas Gulf Coast destinations, including our Sweeny refinery."

Construction on the Gray Oak Pipeline is expected to begin in the next few months. The pipeline will run approximately 700 miles and will transport 800,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of crude oil, which will be expandable up to 1 million BBL/d. The pipeline is expected to be in service by the end of 2019. The project's total cost is expected be approximately $2 billion. The project is a joint venture of Phillips 66 Partners and Andeavor (NYSE:ANDV) (San Antonio, Texas). For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Phillip 66's Sweeny Hub is in Old Ocean, Texas, near the Gulf Coast. "At Sweeny, we're building two 150,000-BBL/d NGL [natural gas liquids] fractionators," Garland said. "We have agreements in place with multiple parties, including DCP Midstream, to supply the new fractionators. The hub will have 400,000 BBL/d of fractionation capacity and access to 15 million barrels of storage when the expansion is completed in late 2020."

Construction on the fractionators is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. S&B Engineers and Constructors Limited (Houston) is providing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on the projects, which have a combined estimated total investment value (TIV) of $400 million. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on Fractionator 2 and Fractionator 3.

DCP Midstream is a 50:50 joint venture between Phillips 66 and Spectra Energy Corporation (NYSE:SE) (Houston). Garland spoke about the company's progress with projects. "In the high-growth DJ Basin, DCP's Mewbourn gas-processing plant is expected to start up in the third quarter of 2018, and the O'Connor 2 plant in the second quarter of 2019."

Train 3 of the Mewbourn plant in Gilcrest, Colorado, will increase the plant's gas processing capacity by 200 million cubic feet per day to 435 million cubic feet per day. Train 2 at the O'Connor plant in Kersey, Colorado, will increase processing capacity by 200 million to 360 million cubic feet per day. Saulsbury Industries is performing EPC on these projects, each of which has a TIV of $200 million. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on Mewbourn 3 and O'Connor 2.

"In Refining, we've approved an FCC [fluid catalytic cracker] project at our Sweeny Refinery that will increase production of higher-value petrochemical products as well as higher-octane gasoline," Garland said. "This project is anticipated to complete in mid-2020." The project remains in the early planning stage and will involve enhancing the 78,000-BBL/d FCC by modifying the main fractionation column and replacing the reactor and regenerator internals. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Industrial Info also is tracking nearly $200 million in planned refining turnarounds from Phillips 66. Among these is are turnarounds at the company's Lake Charles Refinery in Louisiana, where it intends to perform maintenance on the 60,000-BBL/d Crude Unit 4 and 65,000-BBL/d Vacuum Unit 3. The turnaround is expected to take place late this quarter and be completed early in the fourth quarter. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

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