February 19, 2025 [Reuters] – California policymakers are considering state ownership of one or more oil refineries to ensure a reliable supply of gasoline as the number of refineries in the state declines.

“Gas terminals performance showed firm throughput levels, backed by growing energy demand and energy security considerations around the globe,” Vopak said in a statement.

Shares of the company, which operates terminals and storage facilities for fuels and chemicals worldwide, fell 7% by 0927 GMT, with analysts citing a quarterly core profit miss and a cautious outlook.

For the final quarter of 2024, Vopak flagged a negative one-off effect related to technical issues at one of its LNG terminals in the Netherlands, and an impairment in Mexico due to local legislation significantly reducing imports of crude oil and related products.

“The impact of these items will continue into FY25 and have led to a cautious outlook for FY25,” ING analysts wrote in a note to clients. Fuel distribution is difficult in Mexico at the moment and the limited amount of permits has resulted in empty capacity there, Vopak’s finance chief Michiel Gilsing told Reuters.

“We invested six years ago to an amount of 58 million euros so there was a significant write off,” Gilsing said.
A policy shift under the current administration is unlikely, he added, which means continued negative market outlook for imports of clean petroleum products into Mexico.

Vopak expects its proportional earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to land between 1.15 billion and 1.20 billion euros in 2025.

The metric grew by 9% to 1.17 billion euros ($1.22 billion) in 2024, but fell 2% to 277 million in the fourth quarter.
Vopak said it would launch a share buyback of up to 100 million euros on Thursday and propose a dividend of 1.60 euros per share, thanks to its strong cash generation.

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