Sinopec Records First Quarterly Loss Since at Least Q4 2015

Muyu Xu
Wednesday, April 29, 2020

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) recorded a 19.15 billion yuan ($2.71 billion) net loss in first-quarter earnings, as the coronavirus pandemic walloped fuel consumption and led to collapsing oil prices.

It was the first quarterly loss posted by the listed branch of Asia's largest refiner since at least the fourth quarter in 2015, according to Refinitiv Eikon's records.

The loss compared with net profits in the first quarter of 2019 of 14.76 billion yuan and 14.31 billion yuan in the fourth quarter last year.

Sinopec said its refinery throughput fell 13% year-on-year to 53.74 million tonnes, or about 4.31 million barrels per day (bpd), as the coronavirus curtailed demand for refined oil products.

Its oil refining sector suffered a 25.8 billion yuan loss in the first three months of 2020.

The company said last month it expected lower refining runs for the full year of 2020, but for refined oil consumption to return to normal in the third and fourth quarters.

Utilization rates at its refineries have been resuming after touching as low as 66% in February.

Crude oil production in the first quarter at Sinopec dipped 0.2% from a year earlier to 70.65 million barrels, while natural gas output fell 2.4% to 249.68 billion cubic feet.

Its realized crude oil prices were $49.15 per barrel, down 14.8% on year, following the drop in global oil prices triggered by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Realized natural gas prices were $6.43 per thousand cubic feet, down 9.2% from a year ago, it reported. ($1 = 7.0722 Chinese yuan renminbi) 

(Reporting by Muyu Xu in Beijing and Chen Aizhu in Singapore; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Categories: Finance Oil Gas China

Related Stories

VARD Snags $125M Shipbuilding Deal for Subsea Construction Vessel

Woodside to Shed Some Trinidad and Tobago Assets for $206M

CNOOC Sees 11% Profit Growth in 2024 Driven by Record Oil Production

MODEC Gets Shell’s Gato do Mato FPSO Ops and Maintenance Job

VIDEO: AIRCAT Crewliner takes Shape to Service Offshore for TotalEnergies Angola

AIRCAT 35 Crewliner Vessels Delivered to Service TotalEnergies Angola

Europe's Gas Uncertainty Help Drive Asian LNG Spot Prices Higher

ADES’ Fourth Suspended Jack-Up Rig Gets Work Offshore Thailand

Shell Shuts Down Oil Processing Unit in Singapore Due to Suspected Leak

Pharos Energy Extends Licenses for Two Vietnamese Gas Fields

Current News

The Future of Long-Idle Drillships: Cold-Stacked or Dead-Stacked?

TMC Books Compressors Orders for FPSO and LNG Vessels

MODEC, Sumitomo Partner Up for Delivery of Gato do Mato FPSO

Chuditch Gas Field Up for Summer Drilling Ops as Sunda Reshapes Ownership Structure

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

Hanwha Drilling’s Tidal Action Drillship En Route to Petrobras’ Roncador Field

China's ENN, Zhenhua Oil Ink LNG Supply Deals with ADNOC

MODEC Wins ExxonMobil Guyana’s Hammerhead FPSO Contract

India Stretches Bids Deadline for 13 Offshore Deep-Sea Mineral Blocks

Indonesia Awards Oil and Gas Blocks to Boost Reserves

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com