High oil price, weak rupiah boost Pertamina?s earnings
Friday, August 19 2005 - 05:24 AM WIB
The firm did not provide comparative figures for the same period of last year, but it said it booked Rp 12.8 trillion in earnings before tax and government production share last year.
The firm did not provide net earning figures for the first half of the year, which Pertamina?s finance director Alfred Rohimone said was because the firm would fully pay its taxes and government production share at the end of the year.
It also booked Rp 6.72 trillion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from its upstream operation in the first semester of the year, a 47.75 percent increase from the same period of last year.
EBITDA from downstream operation rose 13.67 percent to Rp 3.03 trillion in the first semester of the year.
?All the achievement of financial indicators exceeded the targets set by the 2005 shareholders meeting, mainly because of the rise in the prices for crude oil and oil products as well as the change in currency rate,? the firm said in a statement, released on Friday.
The statement was issued in the wake of reports that the government would replaced Pertamina?s president Widya Purnama. Widya, who was appointed to lead the firm last year by the administration of Megawati Soekarnoputri, has apparently failed to please the government given his reluctance to support the agreement between the government and American oil giant ExxonMobil Corp. on the future development of the huge Cepu block.
The firm also said in the statement that it produced 127,000 barrels oil per day in the first semester of the year, up from 117,000 barrels per day last year. Total output in in the first semester of the year is 23.1 million barrels. The crude oil was sold at an average price of $49.44 per barrel in the first half of the year, compared to last year?s average price of $37.58 per barrel.
The firm also said that its crude oil production cost reached US$7.5 per barrel, lower than the initial annual target of $9-10, while gas production cost was at $0.7 per thousand cubic feet (MCF), higher than the initial annual target of $0.55-0.65.
The gas production cost is above target due to, among others, the decrease in realized gas production, the firm said.
The firm made no explorations in the first semester of the year.
Oil processing cost at the firm?s refineries averaged $1.33 per barrel in the first semester of the year, lower than the annual target of $1.65-1.77 per barrel.
The firm produced a total of 21.21 million kiloliters of fuel at its refineries in the first semester of the year, compared to the annual target of between 41-43 million kiloliters. (Godang/Dino)