PetroVietnam profits up 10%
PetroVietnam profits up 10%
Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) earned an pre-tax profit of VND30.1 trillion (US$1.43 billion) in the first half of this year, an increase of 10 per cent against last year, Le Minh Hong, the group's deputy general director, reported yesterday in Ha Noi.
Hong said revenues during the period reached VND203 trillion ($9.67 billion), up 20 per cent year-on-year, while its contribution to the State budget also rose 16.6 per cent to VND81.2 trillion ($3.87 billion).
"The group has basically completed its major targets set for this year and achieved high growth rates over the same period of last year," Hong said, attributing this result to higher prices of crude oil, which increased from $115 per barrel in 2011 to $123 per barrel this year, and the 15-per-cent rise in revenue from oil and gas services.During January-June, oil sales reached $7.45 billion, up 23 per cent against last year, while oil and gas service revenues totalled VND109 trillion ($5.19 billion).
The group's total investment value in the first six months of this year reached VND40 trillion ($1.9 billion).
By the end of this year, PetroVietnam estimates to earn a total pre-tax profit of VND61.4 trillion ($2.92 billion) and contribute VND160 trillion ($7.62 billion) to the State budget.
Currently, PetroVietnam invests over VND5 trillion ($238 million) in its non-core businesses (finance, insurance, banking and securities) and it plans to gradually withdraw from those sectors by 2015.
However, according to PetroVietnam's chairman Phung Dinh Thuc, the group's investments in finance (PetroVietnam Finance Corporation) and insurance (PetroVietnam Insurance Corporation) are necessary for its operations and the group is proposing to retain its holdings from 18-20 per cent in these companies.
Also in response to concerns over low consumption of new products including ethanol and synthetic fibres, Thuc said domestic demand was low and most of ethanol products had to be exported.
"PetroVietnam has three plants producing ethanol with the total capacity of up to 300.000 litres per year, but only 9,000 litres were sold in the domestic market," Thuc said, adding if more were consumed here, Viet Nam could save more US dollars from importing fuels
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