Petronas Gas posts higher pre-tax profit of RM543 mln

by **Cals** Wed 07 May 2014, 01:40

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Bernama

Tuesday, 06 May 2014 19:51

KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): Petronas Gas Bhd's pre-tax profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014 rose to RM543.206 million, from RM485.889 million in the same quarter last year, driven by the regasification segment.

The company said that its revenue increased 15.8 per cent to RM1.054 billion, from RM910.443 million in the same period last year.

The company attributed the revenue increase to the commencement of the liquefied natural gas regasification terminal operations in the second quarter of last year.

The increase, however, was partially offsetted by lower gas processing revenue, due to lower export volume and prices of propane and butane, the company said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

Its gas processing, utilities and regasification segments recorded profit of RM176.9 million, RM47.7 million and RM75.2 million respectively.

On business prospects, Petronas Gas, expects to continue delivering sustainable and steady returns, as the structure of the new Gas Processing Agreement and Gas Transportation Agreements effective April 1, 2014, are not materially different from the previous structure.

"The group's regasification business will provide additional earnings from its full year operations in the current financial year," it said.

The company said, gas processing and gas transportation revenue is to remain stable, while it expects higher offtake in utilities by petrochemicals customers, in view of their reduced planned turnaround maintenance activities.

The regasification segment is expected to contribute positively to the group's bottomline, through its full year operations.

This is due to capacity reservation by Petronas for regasification and storage fees under the Regasification Service Agreement.