PTT Announces ฿14Bn of Profit in 3Q, Booking ฿5.7Bn from Stock Gain!

PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) has reported its 3Q20 consolidated financial statement through the Stock Exchange of Thailand as follows;

 

PTT recorded a net profit of 14.1 billion baht in 3Q20, decreased 30.29% compared to the same period of last year, but increased 17.1% compared to the previous quarter.

The increase in this quarter was mainly due to the Petrochemical and Refining businesses due to their stock gain in this quarter from higher crude oil price in this period which caused by OPEC and its allies (OPEC+) agreement to cut their oil production output by 7.7 million barrels per day from August to end of year 2020, the shut-in of offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane together with the recovery on demand of crude oil according to improved demand of petroleum products after the easing of lockdown worldwide and resume economic activities.

 

However, Market Gross Refining Margin (Market GRM) excluding stock gain & loss decreased from US$ 1.6 per barrel in 2Q20 to US$ -0.4 per barrel in 3Q20 due to the increase in crude premium and the decrease in most petroleum product spreads especially diesel spread.

Nevertheless, the Olefins spreads, mainly Polyethylene (PE) spread, gradually improved from the increase in product prices according to an increased demand from food packaging, household appliances and the medical products. Meanwhile, Aromatic spreads, both paraxylene (PX) and benzene (BZ) decreased resulting from lower demand of downstream products and new supply from China. In addition, the overall sales volume of both petroleum and petrochemical products dropped.

Furthermore, there was stock gain from the Petrochemical and Refining business increased from approximately 1,800 million baht in 2Q20 to 5,700 million baht in 3Q20.

The Exploration and Production business’s performance improved from higher selling prices and sales volume due to the Bongkot and Contract 4 projects. The performance of Oil business also increased from higher gross margin as higher selling prices and sales volume due to increased demand after the easing of lockdown, however, stock gain was slightly decrease in this quarter.

Moreover, there was an increase in average selling prices of GSP’s products in line with the higher global petrochemical referenced prices. In