— By Marilyn Gerlach — 

The downstream operations of TotalEnergies (Paris; www.totalenergies.com) delivered its best quarter ever during the July–September period partly due to a strong throughput increase after its Saudi Aramco joint-venture operations, which were shut down following Iranian drone attacks in April, bounced back from operational slump.

Third-quarter refinery throughput was up nearly 10% compared with the second quarter of this year, underpinned by all refineries functioning well in Europe and Port Arthur (Texas, USA) as well as the “progressive return of the SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia to its nominal capacity,” the company said.

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The Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP) refinery, located in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and owned by state-controlled Saudi Aramco (62.5%) and TotalEnergies (37.5%), halted the operations of affected units damaged by the Iranian drone strikes at the height of the Middle East conflict this year. After the emergency shutdown, SATORP operated, by June-end, at only 70% of its normal 460,000 bpd capacity.

CEO Patrick Pouyanné told analysts during the post-results conference call that the downstream operations delivered a record quarter following an exceptional combination of record high margins and a “strong” throughput increase. “All its refineries are running up at full speed and SATORP is now back at nominal capacity since the end of the third quarter.”

According to TotalEnergies’ business report, the volume of raw materials in Q3 fed into its refinery processing units totalled 1,555,000 bpd (1,555 kb/d). This represents a 9% gain compared with the second quarter level of 1,426 kb/d. In the third quarter of last year, the total refinery throughput was 1,478 kb/d.

Because of the third-quarter increase, the refinery throughput during the nine-month period to September reached 1,535 kb/d, nearly the same level as in the January–September period of 1,538 kb/d.

Related: TotalEnergies’ Petrochemicals division benefits from higher selling prices

The crackers operated with a higher utilisation rate year-on-year during the third quarter, at 88%, compared with 84% last year and 80% in Q2. During the nine-month period, the utilisation rate stood at 86% versus the year-earlier 87%.

Production totalled 1.165 mn t of monomers during the third quarter, an increase of 6% versus the second quarter but still well below the year-earlier Q3 level of 1.326 mn t. Some 1.152 mn t of polymers were derived from these monomers during the quarter under review, or a 1% drop versus Q2.

Based on the nine-month period, monomers production fell 8% to 3.448 mn t, but the polymers output was a tad higher at 3.476 mn t compared with the year-earlier 3.474 mn t.

In terms of financial performance, TotalEnergies’ results reflected the gains from higher selling prices brought about by the Middle East conflict.

The Refining & Chemicals sub-segment within the Downstream business segment doubled its third-quarter adjusted operating profit to USD 3.6 bn (EUR 3.2 bn) from USD 687 mn last year. The gains were more outstanding on a year-on-year basis based on the nine-month period. It jumped more than five-fold during the January–September period to USD 7 bn from USD 1.37 bn.

TotalEnergies itself as a group saw a 37% year-on-year sales improvement to USD 66.82 bn during the third quarter.