MANILA, Philippines - Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), which holds a minority stake in the Malampaya gas-to-power project, recorded a slight decline in profits in nine months ending September.
Lower gas, coal and condensate sales cut into earnings, the state-led company told the local bourse, as net income in the nine-month period fell to P2.295 billion from P2.464 billion a year ago.
“The 6.9-percent decline was largely attributed to the decrease in earnings from the company’s major business units,” PNOC-EC said.
Revenues slipped 3.4 percent to P7.316 billion from P7.576 billion “attributable to lower gas offtake, condensate liftings and coal sales this year than last year,” it added.
The upstream oil firm generates most of its revenues from the condensate sales of the Malampaya gas-to-power project in Palawan to customers in Singapore.
The Malampaya project, which started operations in 2001, also fuels three power plants with a combined capacity of 2,700 megawatts or about 40 percent of Luzon’s power generation requirements.
Other income also decreased to P43.73 million from P103.49 million in the nine-month period due to lower interest income this year.
However, the latest figures kept PNOC-EC still on track to hitting its profit target of P3.022 billion this year.
PNOC-EC is planning to sell roughly 218 million new shares to comply with the required 10 percent minimum public float of the local bourse.
To date, the state-led firm has a public float of only 0.21 percent or 4.47 million shares held by the public.