May 2 (Reuters) - PBF Energy on Thursday beat first-quarter profit estimates as the U.S. refiner got a boost from sustained demand for refined products even as maintenance work kept fuel supplies tight in the United States.
Global fuel supplies have remained tight as refiners underwent heavy maintenance work during the quarter and as Ukrainian drone attacks caused outages at refineries in major producer Russia.
"We undertook significant planned maintenance in our East Coast and Mid-continent regions and, following that work, have a clean run at those refineries for the remainder of the year. In the near-term, we have planned maintenance during the second quarter in California," PBF CEO Matt Lucey said.
Refiners routinely schedule maintenance in the first quarter to prepare equipment for high demand in the U.S. summer driving season.
U.S. product supplied, a proxy for demand, remained stable, averaging at 20.10 million barrels per day (bpd) at the end of March, compared with 19.7 million bpd a year earlier, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
"Industry maintenance and seasonal shifts in demand have improved market conditions as we approach the summer driving season," Lucey said.
Bigger rivals Marathon Petroleum and Valero Energy
also beat first-quarter profit estimates.
PBF said first-quarter crude oil and feedstocks throughput rose 5.4% to 897,400 bpd.
However, consolidated gross margin per barrel of throughput fell to $2.68 in the January-March quarter from $7.53 last year.
In the current quarter, the Parsippany, New Jersey-based refiner expects total throughput to be between 870,000 bpd and 930,000 bpd.
It reported an adjusted profit of 85 cents per share for the three months ended March 31, surpassing analysts' average estimate of 66 cents per share, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
((Arunima.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter:
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