Oil and gas firms suffer drop in Q3 profit due to COVID-19 impacts

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hano – Despite the recovery of petrol prices, profits of many businesses in the oil and gas sector dropped in the third quarter of this year due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Petrovietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (PV Gas) suffered a drop of 11.5 percent and 7 percent in pre-tax and after-tax profit in the third quarter of this year to 2.29 trillion VND and 1.86 trillion VND, respectively.

A representative from the firm said that in the first nine months of this year, demand for gas of its customers decreased. Particularly, demand for gas for power generation was equal to only 72 percent of that in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, due to stagnant production situation, the domestic demand fell 35-40 percent year for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 30 percent for low-pressure gas and compressed natural gas compared to that before COVID-19 broke out.

The firm predicted that in the time to come, the number of customers cutting and reducing their gas consumption will continue to rise, leading to a drop of 40-50 percent in sales of gas. At the same time, difficulties in transport and workforce have pushed its production cost up.

Production of the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company also hit the floor in the third quarter of this year. Securities firm Mirae Asset Vietnam predicted that the firm will recover from the fourth quarter of 2021.

In October, BRS production reached 100 percent of its capacity from 85 percent recorded on September 22.

A sharp drop of 29 percent year on year was seen in pre-tax profit of the PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) in the third quarter of this year due to reduction in productivity and product prices caused by social distancing measures.

However, recently, positive signs have been seen in the prices of shares of oil and gas firms thanks to investor’s high hope for rise in oil prices in the time to come.

Notably, the prices of many codes rose strongly, including OIL (23 percent), GAS (26 percent), PVD (43 percent), PVD (43.6 percent), PVS (52.6 percent), and BRS (125.4 percent).