Petronas reported on August 22, 2016, that the company has seen its profits shrink 96% last quarter, as ongoing lower oil prices have crushed net income from 9.1 billion ringgit a year ago to 348 million in Q2 2016.
Revenue also declined 21% to 48.44 billion ringgit as net impairment losses, mainly on asset write-offs, surged to 7.15 billion ringgit during the quarter.
«We should expect to see volatility continue and Petronas will not bank on optimistic oil prices to ease up on pressure,» President and Chief Executive Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said at a news conference. «The combined factors of oversupply, growing inventories and slower demand growth point to an ongoing gloomy outlook well into 2017.»
Wan Zulkiflee said Petronas planned for an average price this year of $30 a barrel, unchanged from its February forecast. Brent crude, after a recent rally, traded at $49.50 at 1021 GMT.
The company's upstream business logged a loss after tax of 3.7 billion ringgit in the 2nd quarter, compared with a profit after tax of 6.2 billion ringgit in the corresponding quarter last year.
Production volume, however, rose 3% to 2.329 million barrels of oil-equivalent to support lower imports.
Profit after tax for its downstream business fell 31% to 2.2 billion ringgit on revenue of 23.7 billion ringgit due to weaker refining margins for its petrochemical products.
On a half-yearly basis, the group's net profit declined 84% to 3 billion ringgit from a year ago, while revenue dropped 23% to 97.56 billion ringgit.
Total production volume for Malaysia and international for the 1st half of 2016 was 2.39 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, a slight increase compared to 2.33 million BOE per day in the previous corresponding period.
The increase, Petronas said, was mainly due to higher gas production from fields in Peninsular Malaysia to support the shortfall in imported gas, additional production streams from Indonesia and Algeria, and improved facilities uptime and efficiency in Malaysia and Canada.
