Petronas records RM55.6b profit

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) posted a 10.8 per cent growth in net profit for the nine months ended December 31 2011, helped by higher margins and favourable oil prices, but predicted a “difficult and challenging” 2012.
President and chief executive officer Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas said the difficult year ahead will mainly be due to the decline in global fuel demand, production as well as lower crude
oil prices.

“This is going to be a very difficult year,” Shamsul said at a media briefing yesterday. “We see massive demand destruction for oil and gas because of the impact of the (slower) world economic growth.”

However, he added that it does not necessarily mean that the company will post a decline in revenue or net profit.
“Basically, it means growth will not be as high as recorded in the past.”

For the nine-month period, the company posted a net profit of RM55.6 billion, while revenue increased by 26.9 per cent to RM222.8 billion. The higher revenue was mainly driven by the higher realised prices and improved liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales volume.

Higher net profit was mainly fuelled by its exploration and production (E&P) business as well as gas and power (G&P) division – which increased by 53 per cent and 24 per cent,
respectively.

The national oil corporation also announced that payments to the government amounted to RM58.4 billion during the ninemonth
period last year, which is inclusive of the RM30 billion dividend. Subsidies for the power sector and non-power sector, meanwhile, was RM18.4 billion.

The company expects a dip in production this year, in the range of a single-digit percentage, and sees a flat output growth next year.

It expects production to regain momentum from 2014 onwards when the Malikai and Gumusut-Kakap deepwater fields offshore Sabah come onstream.

However, Petronas will continue to be affected by the shutdown in oil production in South Sudan, amid a deepening dispute between the newly-independent state with its northern neighbour Sudan. The shutdown has resulted in a production loss of up to 150,000 barrels a day for Petronas which owns a 40 per cent stake in Petrodar, a joint venture between the Malaysian firm, China National Petroleum Corp (40 per cent) and the South Sudan government (20 per cent).