VLO Valero Energy Corporation

By Anthony O. Goriainoff

Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) on Thursday reported a 70% drop in first-quarter profit, and said investments in its system's flexibility, and a focus on safety, enabled the company to capture good margins in an otherwise weak margin environment.

The San Antonio-based transportation fuels company earned a quarterly profit of $141 million or 34 cents a share, compared with $469 million, or $1.09 a share, for the same period last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended March 31, fell to $24.26 billion from $26.44 billion in 2018.

"The ability to achieve positive earnings and operating cash flow in a low margin environment is a testament to the earnings capability of our assets across margin cycles," said Chairman and Chief Executive Joe Gorder.

The company reiterated its guidance for 2019 and 2020 whereby it expects to invest about $2.5 billion of capital in both 2019 and 2020, of which about 60% is for sustaining the business and about 40% is for growth projects.

Write to: anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2019 07:40 ET (11:40 GMT)

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