Oil losses weigh on PetroEnergy’s profits

PETROENERGY RESOURCES CORP. posted a 19.6% drop in attributable income in the first half of 2020 as it incurred losses from its oil business.

In a regulatory filing, the listed petroleum and electricity generation company said it booked P161.30 million in attributable profit between January and June, while it recorded P1.08 billion in total revenues in the period, or lower by 3.2%.

Its attributable income in the second quarter fell to P35.26 million, down 49% from P69.10 million in the same period last year.

“The decline is mainly due to the losses incurred from the oil operations during the period due to lower crude oil prices resulting from the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic,” it said.

In the second quarter, electricity sales of its 32-megawatt (MW) Maibarara geothermal project and 70-MW Tarlac solar project fell by 1.1% to P456.78 million due to the repricing of Maibarara Geothermal, Inc.’s (MGI) electricity price in mid-2019.

Including first-quarter sales, the company booked P912.08 million, down 2.6%.

The power firm’s oil revenues were down 29.2% to P69.45 million in the April-June period on lower average crude oil prices, leading to a first-half figure of P171.12 million, lower by 6.1%.

As of end-June, PetroEnergy recorded an increase in oil output by over 40% to 3.42 million barrels, coming from operations in the Etame petroleum block in Gabon, West Africa.

The company is part of a consortium that is involved in the exploration, exploitation and production of the 307,360-hectare Etame Marine under a contract with the Gabonese government. PetroEnergy owns a 2.53% minority stake in the project.

In the Philippines, it is also involved in the exploration of three potential oil blocks in northwest Palawan.

The power firm on Tuesday said its renewable energy projects were not “seriously affected” by the global coronavirus pandemic.

“We are pleased to report that our existing renewable energy (RE) projects have not been seriously affected by this pandemic as our facilities continued to perform very satisfactorily,” said PetroEnergy President and Chief Executive Officer Milagros V. Reyes during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting.

The company runs five green projects through PetroGreen Energy Corp., its renewables arm, which owns and manages MGI, PetroSolar Corp., and PetroWind Energy, Inc.

The Department of Energy on May 13 awarded PetroWind a certificate of confirmation of commerciality for its 14-MW Nabas-2 wind power project, which will begin construction once the company finalizes its investment in the project.

PetroSolar has yet to determine its target commercial run for the 20-MW second phase of its Tarlac solar project, which has yet to secure a compliance certificate from the Energy Regulatory Commission.

PetroGreen said the meteorological mast installation work for its San Vicente wind hybrid power project had been delayed due to pandemic-induced travel restrictions. The project was given a certificate of non-coverage from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on May 7. — Adam J. Ang