Geneva-based energy and LNG trader Gunvor said that its net profit surged in the first half of this year when compared to the same period last year.
The company said on Thursday its net profit after taxes jumped to $841 million, compared to $213 million in the same period last year and $726 million for the entire 2021.
In addition, the group recorded a gross profit of $2.03 billion in the first half and a revenue of $89.1 billion, compared with $642 million and $47.7 billion, respectively.
Gunvor traded 99 million tonnes of crude oil, natural gas, LNG, and other commodities during the period under review. This compares to 118 million tonnes in the same period last year.
“Gunvor’s result during this period, driven by massive global market dislocations, was broad-based across all regions and activities, including crude oil, oil products, natural gas, and liquefied natural gas (LNG),” Torbjörn Törnqvist, chairman and CEO of Gunvor, said.
“Particularly encouraging is the return of substantial profitability in our refining operations and our shipping,” he said.
“This has resulted mainly from tight refining capacity worldwide and strong demand, specifically in Europe, for middle distillates, including diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel. As a leading global ship charterer, Gunvor benefitted from strong demand for spot charter capacity,” Törnqvist said.
Gunvor did not provide details regarding LNG volumes in the first half. This was also the case with 2020 and 2021.
According to the company’s website, Gunvor delivered 4 million tonnes in 2016, 7 million tonnes in 2017, 11 million tonnes in 2018, and 16 million tonnes in 2019.
In December last year, the trader signed a new syndicated borrowing base facility to support the working capital needs of its growing LNG activities globally.
Prior to that, it penned a 10-year deal with Tellurian to buy Driftwood LNG volumes as well.
In addition, its unit Clearlake Shipping signed deals in October to charter four LNG carriers from Celsius Shipping and
This year, the firm entered into long-term LNG deal with Energy Transfer, the developer of the proposed Lake Charles LNG export facility in Louisiana, as well as signed a deal with PGN, a unit of Indonesia’s Pertamina.
