Refinery job progress ‘good’

Press, 31 August 1984, Page 8

Refinery job progress ‘good’

New Zealand Refining, Ltd, had an unaudited tax paid operating profit for the half year to June 30 of $5,991,000, compared with $5,598,000 for the corresponding period last year. The charge for taxation for the period is estimated at $5,444,000 (1983 $5,514,000). About half of the profit was earned from an efficiency incentive which ended in March, the company said in a statement. Discussions were taking plae with the Government to renegotiate this incentive. New Zealand Refining’s intake for processing was 1,039,000 tonnes, compared with 1,315,000 tonnes for the period January-June, 1983. The drop results from the refinery being shut for a five week biennial overhaul during May and June. Unfortunately, as a result of industrial action, the overhaul took an additional 17 days with a loss of production and increased costs, the company said. Very good progress had been made over the last two months on the refinery expansion project. “By the end of August, progress over all had reached 77 per cent, 91 per cent of materials were on site and physical construe-

tion on site was 50 per cent complete.” A detailed review of the project progress would be undertaken with the technical advisers at the end of next month. An interim dividend of 8 per cent (8c per $1 share) will be paid on October 15, 1984 (1983 interim 7c per $1 share) of which 1 per cent (1c) is payable from capital reserve for those shareholders who elect to take it from this source.