Portugal's Galp Beats Fourth-Quarter Profit Forecast

Reuters

LISBON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Portugal's Galp Energia posted a better than expected 10 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Monday thanks to a jump in refining margins and higher oil output and refining volumes.

Fourth-quarter adjusted net profit was 92 million euros ($125.3 million), against the 62 million euro consensus estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 16 percent at 271 million euros, beating an average forecast of 265 million euros. The results are adjusted to reflect changes in the company's crude stocks.

Galp said its refining margin rose to $1.70 per barrel from $0.90 a year earlier, thanks to a new diesel production unit at its Sines refinery. For the whole of last year, however, the margin dipped by about 2 percent, contributing to a 14 percent fall in net profit to 310 million euros.

Galp's oil output, which mainly comes from Brazil, jumped 24 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier to 21,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The amount of oil processed at its two refineries grew by almost 14 percent to 21.35 million barrels.

Sales of refined products to direct clients rose almost 12 percent to 2.6 million tonnes as Portugal's economy continued to emerge from a long recession, while exports soared 34 percent to 1 million tonnes, helped by the new diesel unit.

"The marketing of oil products performed better than in the same period a year earlier as the Iberian market for oil products recovered and cost optimisation measures were implemented," Galp said. ($1 = 0.7343 euros)

(Reporting By Andrei Khalip; Editing by David Goodman)



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