Malaysian energy giant Petronas reported a decrease in both LNG production and sales due to a weak market demand hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Total LNG production during January-September dropped by 5.3 percent to 19.5 million tonnes as compared to 20.6 million tonnes in the same period last year.
As for LNG sales volume, they decreased 1.2 percent to 24.3 mtpa in the nine-month period.
However, they started to pick up in the third quarter increasing slightly to 7.58 mtpa compared to 7.48 mtpa in the third quarter last year.
Petronas attributed the slight increase due to higher LNG production at its complex in Bintulu.
Furthermore, the effects of the global demand slump caused by the Covid-19 and impairments weighed on Petronas total profit as well.
The firm reported a loss of 3.4 billion ringgit ($836 million) for the July to September period, against a profit of 7.4 billion ringgit in the same quarter last year. In the nine-month period, Petronas logged a loss of 19.9 billion ringgit.
Looking forward, Petronas said prolonged low oil price and moderate demand recovery impacted by the pandemic continue to pose challenges to the industry.
“The board expects the performance of Petronas Group in the final quarter of 2020 to be continuously affected by the challenging business environment,” it said.