Chevron income up 14%

Despite several macroeconomic challenges and the anaemic industry growth exacerbated by extreme weather conditions, the Company recorded good results.

The profit after tax and other comprehensive income, grew by 14% to Rs 2.3 billion, Chevron Chairman Farrukh Saeed said.

He said four interim dividends were declared during the year amounting to Rs 11 per share and this with the appreciation of the share price, would amount to a total shareholder return of 24%.

“The fact that the above results have been achieved on top of our safety record is no small accomplishment indeed. We have completed a record setting milestone for safe operations by achieving 11 years of incident-free operations in Sri Lanka,” he said.

“As I said last year, this has been achieved through a relentless commitment to instilling best practices and mitigation of risks in all areas of operations.”

“As stated in my previous report and the subsequent announcement, construction work on a new blending plant on a leasehold property of four-and-half-acres at Sapugaskanda is progressing.

We have successfully secured all the approvals including the environmental clearance, and the land levelling has already been completed,” Saeed said.

The new plant will be designed to realise further efficiency enhancements by incorporating ATG (Automatic Tank Gauging) and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) for flow path management, smooth material flows throughout the operation and minimisation of manual drum handling.

It is estimated that the increased capacity of new tanks and additional features of the new plant will result in an estimated 20%-25% increase in capacity.

Global Vice President of Supply Chain, Ms. Barbara Burger visited the country in June 2012 and inspected the new site. The new plant will be ready to commence operations by June 2014.

“The company continued with its social responsibility programs during the year with particular emphasis on road safety, as Sri Lanka’s traffic related accidents and deaths are a serious social issue. The purpose of our campaign was to make an impact on the behaviour of motorists and pedestrians,” he said.