BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 4
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Net profit of Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas (KMG) national oil and gas company is forecast to drop by three times and amount to 100 billion tenge ($235.5 million) in 1Q2020, Chief Financial Officer of KMG Dauren Karabayev said, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media.
He said that based on the preliminary results of KMG’s 1Q2020 operations, a decline of financial indicators is observed.
“For example, the company's revenue decreased by 21 percent from 1.7 to 1.3 trillion tenge (from $4 billion to $3.6 billion). At the same time, KMG consolidated remained ‘cash-positive’, which means that the positive free cash flow of the company amounted to 11 billion tenge ($25.9 million). The cash balance amounted to about $3.7 billion. This is the company’s liquidity ‘pillow’ for the near future,” Karabayev said.
However, he noted that the operational results of 1Q2020 still do not fully reflect the negative impact of the oil prices decline.
Even more negative consequences are expected in 2Q2020 as a result of the drop in world oil demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a reduction in oil production under the OPEC+ agreement, he said.
Nevertheless, Karabaev said, KMG took into account the situation with oil prices decline in 2014 and has carried out systematic work over the past years to strengthen the company’s financial stability.
“Currently the company is in a relatively better position than during previous periods of oil price decline. KMG continues work on optimizing expenditures and bringing them in line with reduced revenues,” Karabayev said.
KMG is Kazakhstan's operator for exploration, production, refining and transportation of hydrocarbons, representing the state interests in the oil and gas industry of Kazakhstan.
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