KUALA LUMPUR (March 1): Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) turned to a profit of RM13.357 billion for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2021 (4QFY21), from losses of RM1.137 billion a year ago, on the back of an improved performance of the upstream, natural gas and new energy segments.
This was on the back of favourable average realised prices for all products, Petronas said in its latest quarter results notes.
The improvements more than offset higher product losses and wider losses in the downstream segment due to higher impairment loss on assets, the notes showed.
In the quarter under review, crude oil prices climbed mainly due to an increase in economic activities globally, coupled with oil supply disruptions in Ecuador, Nigeria and Libya, the national energy firm said.
As a result of higher prices, Petronas' quarterly revenue rose 73.9% year-on-year to RM76.571 billion from RM44.042 billion.
Comparatively, the national oil firm recorded average Brent of US$70.91 (about RM297.33)/bbl in 2021, up 70.17% year-on-year from US$41.67/bbl in 2020. The average Japan spot LNG price came in at US$18.60/MMBtu in 2021 — more than four times US$4.4/MMBtu in 2020.
Likewise, urea prices more than doubled to US$511/MT in 2021, from US$250/MT, while methanol averaged US$397/MT from US$240/MT in 2020.
Notably, Petronas' full-year net profit for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY21) came in at a three-year high of RM48.6 billion — against RM21.029 billion in losses for FY20. Full-year revenue rose to RM247.962 billion in FY21, up 38.73% from RM178.741 billion in FY20.
This was thanks to favourable price impact of major products, in line with higher average realised prices.
Excluding net impairment changes, the group’s performance was still an improvement from 2020 levels, it said. The group recorded net impairment write-back of RM2.307 billion in FY21 from losses of RM32.681 billion for FY20.
As such, Petronas has maintained its dividend payout to the government at RM25 billion as guided last year.
The national oil firm also paid RM3.3 billion in state sales tax in 2021, as well as RM1.4 billion in contributions for corporate social responsibility projects in the two years of 2020-2021.
In FY21, cash flow from operations expanded to RM78.6 billion, up 93% from RM40.7 billion the year before.