Caltex Australia appears to have rebounded from the losses in it incurred in 2009, achieving a much better profit in the current year and expressing optimism that full earnings would surpass last year's results.

Caltex informed the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Thursday that the company's replacement after tax cost of sales operating profit (RCOP) for calendar 2010 should hover in the range of $285 million to $295 million.

That would improve the 2009 RCOP of $204 million though the refinery operator noted that setting aside the significant effects of the volatile oil prices and other factors, this year's RCOP would end up at $310 million at the maximum.

Caltex, last year, posted some $324 million in RCOP, also excluding the impact of the shifting oil prices and other significant items.

On a comparative basis, the oil company cited that the Australian dollar carries a much-higher value in 2010 than in 2009 and that is projected "to have in the order of a $65 million negative impact on the Caltex Refiner Margin after tax when compared with 2009."

Nonetheless, as Caltex has adapted some foreign exchange hedging early in the calendar year, the effects of the almost parity level of the Australian dollar against the US dollar have been mostly offset as the fuel company services its US accounts payables.

Along with the generally encouraging numbers, Caltex is upbeat that its marketing division would experience further growth as it reveals that sales of its transport fuels reached record levels while sales figures for finished lubricants posted registered records heights from the start of the year to date.

While the company's production volumes dipped in the first six months of the current calendar year owing to Caltex's higher scheduled maintenance on its refinery stations, the production numbers significantly recovered during the last six month.

Caltex said that the rebound should reach record levels for its last half production volumes.

However, Caltex's net debt failed to improve on the current year as it projected that by the end of December, net debt would climb into an estimated level of $500 million, coming from the $487 recorded in the previous calendar year.