Pertamina?s net profit jumps 209%

State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina saw its net profit in the first nine months of this year jumped by 209 percent due to improving operating performance and efficiency measures.

The company said in a statement on Tuesday that net profit in the January-September period of this year soared to US$2.83 billion from $914 million in the corresponding period of last year.

Pertamina, however, said that revenue declined by 16.8 percent to $26.62 million, year-on-year, due to lower oil price.

?The (net profit) achievement was because Pertamina could increase operating performance, while on the other hand efficiency measures managed to cut cost by 27 percent during the first nine months of this year,? said Pertamina President Director Dwi Soetjipto.

In terms of upstream performance, Pertamina said that production in the third quarter of this year totaled 646,000 boepd, comprising of 309 bpd of oil, and 1,953 mmscfd of gas. This is a 12,3 percent increase compared to the same period of last year. Meanwhile, geothermal power plant electricity production totaled 2,344 GwH.

Pertamina said it has managed to reduce production cost at its refineries to 98.2 percent MOPS in September of this year, down from 104.2 percent of MOPS in the same month of last year.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak