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THE National Gas Company (NGC) Group's fortunes continue to improve with the state-owned firm reporting an unaudited after-tax profit of $437 million – a 292 per cent increase – for the six month period ending June 30, 2021.
And revenues rose 63 per cent to $9.6 billion, NGC chairman Conrad Enill reports in the results released on Wednesday.
"This was an improvement in profit by $665 million when compared with the restated loss of $228 million and an improvement in revenues by $3.7 billion over the $5.9 billion for the same period last year," Enill stated.
Rising global oil and gas prices helped the group to profitability, he said.
"The improvements in revenues and profits were attributed to growth in contributions from the aggregation, upstream, transportation and downstream business segments which benefitted from the rebound in commodity prices from the end of 2020," he said.
On Wednesday, West Texas Intermediate crude traded at US$67.47 and natural gas was priced at US$3.94.
Enill also spoke of progress made in several long term gas sales contracts with two multi-plant downstream customers and the resolution of outstanding customer claims.
He lists a contract signed in May with Trinidad Nitrogen Co Ltd (Tringen) that guarantees continued operations of two ammonia plants at the Pt Lisas Industrial Estate. Also, on July 30, NGC reached an agreement with Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (MHTL), after a snag in negotiations, and a gas contract with DeNovo for additional supply.
Enill noted the commencement of oil production in May in BHP's Ruby field, in which NGC holds a 31.5 per cent stake, six months ahead of schedule, as well as Shell Barracuda and Touchstone's Cascadura projects that are due to ensure stability of natural gas supplies.
The financials precedes the announcement by BHP on Tuesday that it was divesting its global energy assets to Australia's Woodbine Petroleum in a US$28 billion merger. Energy Minister Stuart Young has said he did not expect BHP's local assets to be affected by the deal.
On the protracted discussions on Atlantic LNG's train one facility – in which the group invested more than $200 million to keep operational with no contribution from other shareholders – Enill said talks are ongoing.
"Train 1 and the future configuration of all trains at Atlantic LNG remain under very active consideration with GORTT and shareholders as part of the Atlantic unitisation discussions among the parties."
He gave updates on the group's sustainability plan – the Green Agenda – saying it was to be an integrated player in clean energy. He also outlined initiatives by National Energy, including a 100-kilowatt solar project at the Preysal service station and an agreement with KenesjayGreen on a hydrogen initiative. Additionally, Phoenix Park Gas Processors continues to maintain long-term profitability with NGC CNG poised to promote CNG as an alternative fuel source.
And as the group continues to manage through the covid19 pandemic Enill said it was "working at creating a new future towards sustainability, one that promotes value optimisation, implementation of a green agenda and ...employee safety and security."
NGC's continued turnaround comes after a $2.1 billion loss for 2020, and 2021 first quarter profit of $191 million.
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