Malaysia’s energy giant Petronas reported a rise in its second-quarter liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales, while its profit jumped on the back of higher oil and gas prices.
Total LNG sales during April-June rose 4.2 percent year-on-year to 8.44 million tonnes. This compares to 8.10 million tonnes in the second-quarter last year and 8.38 million tonnes in the prior quarter.
“Gross LNG sales volume increased by 0.34 million tonnes mainly due to higher plant production in line with higher demand,” Petronas said in its quarterly report released on Tuesday.
During the first-half of this year, the company’s LNG sales volumes reached 16.82 million tonnes, down 1.2 percent compared to 17.03 million tonnes in the same period last year.
Petronas attributed the decrease “mainly due to lesser trading opportunities compared to the same period in 2021.”
201 Bintulu LNG cargoes
During the first half of this year, Petronas delivered 201 LNG cargoes from the giant 30 mtpa Bintulu LNG export facility in Sarawak.
The plant, which has shipped more than 12,000 LNG cargoes since it started operations back in 1983, consists of nine trains and supplies key demand centers such as Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan.
Petronas said it also completed 1612 virtual pipeline system and LNG bunkering deliveries to ensure “reliable supply to remote customers and to the marine industry in Malaysia.”
Besides the onshore facilities, Petronas continues to work on its FLNG business.
It shipped the first cargo in March last year from its second floating LNG producer located in the Rotan gas field, offshore Sabah.
The 1.5 mtpa PFLNG Dua adds to the 1.2 mtpa PFLNG Satu located offshore Sabah as well.
Petronas delivered 22 LNG cargoes from these two floating LNG producers during the first half of this year.
On top of these these two FLNGs, Petronas also plans to build a third unit and it has awarded two front-end engineering design (FEED) contracts for the nearshore FLNG project in Sabah.
Profit, revenue up
Petronas reported profit of 23 billion ringgit ($5.13 billion) for the second quarter, a rise of 139 percent versus 9.6 billion ringgit in the year before.
Profit surged from 18.8 billion ringgit in the first half last year to 46.4 billion ringgit this year.
Revenue increased 63 percent to 93.3 billion ringgit in the second quarter, while it increased 57 percent to 172.1 billion ringgit in the first half of this year.