Pertamina books $914m profit as of Q3 2015

State owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina (Persero) announced on Thursday it booked US$914 million in net profit in the first nine months of the year

The firm did not provide comparative figures of net profit for last year, while noting its sales until the third quarter of this year reached $32 billion, a 42 percent drop from the corresponding period of last year. EBITDA reached $3.55 billion with a positive trend in the EBITDA margin.

President Director Dwi Soetjipto blamed the sharp decrease in the sales to the drop in oil price and the sharp depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar.

Despite the drop in oi price, the firm continued its investment program, with total investment as of September of this year amounting to $2.5 billion. Of the total investment, 78 percent was spent in the upstream sector, 9 percent for marketing division to build storages, 7.4 percent for gas and new and renewable energy division to build gas infrastructure.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon