Petron’s net profit drops sharply
In its report during the first week of August, Petron Corp., the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, reported a sharp drop of its consolidated net income in the first half of the year due to the volatility of global oil prices.
Petron Chairman and Chief Executive Ramon Ang disclosed to the stock exchange that the consolidated net income from its operations in the Philippines and Malaysia showed a drop of 93%. The company posted a profit of PHP432 million (US$10.3 million), down from its PHP6.04 billion (US$143.8 million) year-on-year.
Ang says that the contraction is due to the consolidation of the Philippine operations and the Malaysian business. Consolidated revenues amounted to PHP193.3 billion (US$4.6 billion) in the first half, up by 43 % from PHP134.9 billion (US$3.2 billion), year-on-year. Petron Philippines alone (not including Malaysia) posted a net income of PHP1.99 billion (US$ 47.3 million) in the first half.
According to Ang, the industry saw a steep and continuous decline in crude oil and finished product prices from April to the first week of July. In the Philippines, this led to 13 weeks of consecutive price rollbacks in local pump prices. “The precipitous drop in prices was caused by the Eurozone crisis and the slowdown in the economies of the United States and China,” he said. (August 10, 2012)
