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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysian state-owned
energy giant Petronas warned on Friday that the remainder of the year would
remain tough due to prolonged low oil prices and moderate demand recovery
hampered by the coronavirus, as it recorded a third-quarter loss, reported Reuters.
“Amid the fluid operating
environment brought about by the pandemic as well as prolonged volatility of oil
prices, Petronas is adopting a cautious outlook and anticipates that the
remainder of 2020 will be challenging,” said Tengku Muhammad Taufik, president
and group chief executive officer.
“We expect our performance to be
continuously affected by the volatility of oil prices aggravated by the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic,” he said in a statement.
Petronas, or Petroliam
Nasional Berhad, said it would continue to uphold “disciplined capital and
operational spending” and preserve liquidity to ensure business
sustainability.
The world’s fourth-biggest LNG exporter said its
Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) will be operational by early next year, with
the Atmospheric Residue Desulphurisation Train 1 and Train 2 expected to be
ready-for-start-up (RFSU) by the beginning of 2021.
The Diesel Hydro
Treating unit is expected to be RFSU in the fourth quarter of 2021, while the
restart-up of the Refinery and Petrochemical plants is planned for the first
quarter, the firm said.
Petronas reported a post-tax loss of 3.4 billion
ringgit ($835.8 million) for the July to September period, against 7.4 billion
ringgit in the same quarter last year.
Its second straight quarterly loss
was attributed to a higher impairment loss on assets and higher tax expenses as
a result of the lower oil and gas price outlook.
Revenue fell 25% to 41.1
billion ringgit.
As MRC reported earlier,
in June 2019, Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas,
and Saudi Aramco started operations at their new
1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker. The cracker is part of the USD2.7
billion joint-venture oil refinery and petrochemical project known as RAPID - or
Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development - located in Pengerang in the
state of Johor, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.
Ethylene and
propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia"s estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers" inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random
copolymer.
Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian
oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is
engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream
exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing
and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and
liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of
liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping;
automotive engineering; and property investment. |
