Petronas Registers A Record RM76.3 Billion Pre-tax Profit In FY07

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- Higher crude oil prices lifted the pre-tax profit of Petronas to a record RM76.3 billion for the financial year (FY) ended March 31, 2007, up 9.9 per cent from RM69.4 billion registered in the same period of 2006.Its president Tan Sri Hassan Marican Thursday said the national oil corporation's revenue rose 10 per cent to RM184.1 billion during the period from RM167.4 billion previously.Speaking at a press conference here to announce the group's financial performance, he said net profit jumped to RM46.4 billion from RM43.1 billion, while total asset increased to RM294.6 billion from RM273.0 billion.Shareholders fund grew 16.3 per cent to RM170.9 billion from RM147.0 billion, said Hassan.He said the national oil corporation's manufacturing revenue grew to RM102.9 billion from RM97.6 billion in last financial year."Without manufacturing activities, group revenue would be reduced by one third annually."To a question, Hassan said the domestic manufacturing revenue of Petronas stood at 28.7 per cent of the manufacturing sector's contribution to Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP).Non-manufacturing revenue jumped to RM184.1 billion from RM167.4 billion.International operation revenue grew 19.4 per cent to RM67.6 billion from RM96.6 billion."There were increasing revenue from international operation reflecting the group's success internationally," he said.As for the strengthening ringgit, Hassan said it had a negative impact on financial results as Petronas conduct its business in U.S. dollar.The exchange rate impact to the revenue totaled RM7.2 billion.-Hassan said the group's total capital expenditure (capex) in FY 2007 expanded to RM21.6 billion from RM18.7 billion, with bulk of the capex for domestic projects.He said the exploration and production sectors continued to incur the biggest capex.On another note, Hassan said Malaysia's total average production in terms of barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day for FY 2007 declined 2.7 percent to 1,611.4 billion boe from 1,656.1 billion boe.He said assuming the growth of petroleum product consumption grew at four percent annually, Malaysia will be a net importer by 2010.Malaysia's oil reserves during the period rose 1.4 percent to 20.18 billion boe as of Jan 1, 2007, compared with 19.91 billion boe as of Jan 1, 2006.International reserves amounted to 6.31 billion boe as against 5.94 billion boe previously.As for the discovery of new crude oil during FY 2007, Hassan said 30 percent came from deepwater discovery.