Earnings more than double at Citgo in fourth quarter

Thursday, March 11th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Increased refining business and high demand for gasoline helped Citgo Petroleum Corp. double its fourth-quarter earnings, the company reported Wednesday.

Tulsa-based Citgo said it earned $87 million in the three months that ended Dec. 31, compared with earnings of $42 million during the same period in 2002.

The 2002 period included a labor strike in Venezuela that hurt oil production at Citgo's parent company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., Citgo's main crude oil supplier.

For the year, Citgo said net income was $439 million, up from $180 million in 2002.

Citgo, the U.S. refining and gas retail unit of the national oil company of Venezuela, said revenues were $6.3 billion in the fourth quarter, up 15 percent from $5.5 billion in the same period in 2002.

``As we have throughout the year, we took advantage of favorable market conditions by increasing the production and sales of refined products during the fourth quarter of 2003,'' said Luis Marin, Citgo's president and chief executive officer.

As a wholly owned subsidiary, Citgo does not have any publicly traded shares. But it must report its quarterly results because it sells bonds in the U.S. bond market.

Refining margins were higher than a year earlier and Citgo responded by boosting production at its three U.S. fuel refineries to 98 percent of capacity, Citgo said.

Diesel fuel sales and its petrochemicals business were also strong, Citgo said.

Citgo is considering moving its headquarters and the roughly 1,000 corresponding jobs to Houston.

Its decision is expected by the end of the month.