Malaysia's Petronas earnings up 22 pct on year to 13.5 bln USD in 2018

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's national oil firm Petronas announced Friday that the group's profit after tax rose 22 percent to 55.3 billion ringgit (13.52 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, on the back of higher revenue and supported by net write-back of impairment on assets.

The group said in a statement that its revenue last year increased by 12 percent to 251 billion ringgit compared to 223.6 billion ringgit a year ago, mainly due to higher average realized prices for all key products.

The increase in profit, however, was partially offset by the effect of the strengthening of the Malaysian Ringgit against U.S. dollar exchange rate, coupled with the impact of lower sales volume, mainly for liquefied natural gas.

Due to higher product costs, depreciation and amortization as well as petroleum proceeds, the group's net profit fell 21.3 percent year-on-year to 14.3 billion ringgit in the fourth quarter last year.

Its revenue for the quarter rose 13 percent year-on-year to 69.9 billion ringgit, mainly due to the impact of higher average realized prices for all key products. However, this was partially offset by the impact of lower sales volume, mainly for liquefied natural gas.

Going forward, the group believed the oil and gas industry would continue to operate in a challenging environment arising from market uncertainties and geopolitical risks.

"The oil price is expected to remain volatile in 2019, and uncertainty in various fronts will have a significant impact on prices," said the group's president and chief executive officer Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin.

The group's plans this year would be based on oil price of 66 U.S. dollar per barrel.