Petronas Slips to Q4 Loss

Malaysia's Petronas slumped to a loss of ringgit 1.14bn ($281mn) after tax in the fourth quarter, compared with a ringgit 4.11bn profit a year earlier, the state-owned LNG producer reported on February 26.

It marked Petronas' third quarterly loss in a row. The company saw revenues slide 31.3% year on year to ringgit 44bn in the three-month period, as lower prices and weaker demand took their toll.

Petronas posted an after-tax loss of ringgit 10.5bn for the whole of 2020, versus a ringgit 40.5bn profit in the previous year. But excluding impairments, the company turned an after-tax profit of ringgit 10.5bn. Its cash flow from operating activities was ringgit 40.7bn, down 55% y/y.

Petronas' Ebitda for last year came in at ringgit 11.9bn.

"The outlook of the industry remains uncertain and challenging with modest recovery in demand and prices as the Covid-19 impact continues," Petronas said. "The emergence of fresh cases and repeated lockdowns to contain the pandemic, will continue to pose a challenge to the industry."

Petronas' production averaged 2.209mn barrels of oil equivalent/day, down 8.2% y/y, owing to the impact of the pandemic on demand and prices. Nevertheless, 17 new upstream projects were brought on stream during the year, including nine brownfields and five greenfields in Malaysia, as well as a greenfield and a brownfield in Indonesia and another brownfield in Oman.

Petronas also took final investment decisions on 13 projects, nine of which are in Malaysia, two in South Sudan and one in Turkmenistan and another in Brazil. It made five discoveries over the year, including one in the US Gulf of Mexico, two in the Salina basin off Mexico and one in Suriname and another in Malaysia.