BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 26
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The net profit of Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas National Company (KMG) has increased by 31 times from 21 billion tenge ($51 million) in the first half of 2020 to 644 billion tenge ($1.5 billion) in the first half of 2021, Trend reports citing the company.
The increase was due to an increase in average oil price, increase in revenues and share in the profit of joint ventures and associates, as well as decline of production expenses, general and administrative expenses, and the absence of significant impairment of exploration and evaluation assets.
Net profit for the period attributable to shareholders of the Parent Company amounted to 644 billion tenge ($1.5 billion).
Cost of purchased oil, gas, petroleum products and other materials increased by 50 percent year-on-year to 1.6 trillion tenge ($3.9 billion) in the reporting period due to higher average price and volumes of oil purchases and weakening of the average exchange rate of tenge vs. the US dollar. This was partially offset by a decrease in the cost of purchased gas for resale and a decrease in the cost of petroleum products for resale. The purchased gas for resale decreased by 58.5 percent year-on-year and amounted to 85 billion tenge ($201 million) in the first half of 2021.
In the first half of 2021, production expenses decreased by 3.6 percent year-on-year to 351 billion tenge ($827 million) due to the reduction of short-term lease costs by 51.7 percent to 14 billion tenge ($32 million).
Transportation and distribution costs increased by 5.4 percent year-on-year to 234 billion tenge ($552 million) due to higher loading, transportation and storage costs.
General and administrative expenses decreased by 8 percent year-on-year to 69 billion tenge ($162 million) because of a decline in expenses for consulting services, reversal of impairment of VAT receivable, and a decrease in labor costs mainly as a result of changes in the organizational structure at the KMG Corporate Center in 2020.
Taxes other than income tax increased by 41.7 percent year-on-year to 197 billion tenge ($465 million) mainly due to higher average oil prices.
In the first half of 2021, finance costs, including interest expense on lease liabilities, were at 137 billion tenge ($323 million), up by 1.5 percent year-on-year due to higher expenses on lease agreements, reflecting the new lease agreement for the Saryarka gas pipeline for 2021, and long-term office lease agreements and archival premises at KTG.
In the first half of 2021, capital expenditures (on an accrual basis, segment reporting) amounted to 167 billion tenge ($392 million), down by 31.3 percent from 243 billion tenge ($602 million) in the first half of 2020.
Capital expenditures on a cash basis amounted to 153 billion tenge ($361 million) with a decrease of 32.6 percent year-on-year. Capital expenditures decreased at KMGI due to scheduled overhaul in 2020, at KTG due to the completion of large investment projects in the reporting period of 2020, and at Atyrau Refinery due to the payment of arrears in the first half of 2020 for fixed assets related to the advanced oil refining complex, acquired in 2019.
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