Refinery upbeat about business results amid oil price fluctuations

Hanoi (VNA) – The Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR) has enjoyed sound business results from the outset of the year, although its profit margin was affected by fluctuations in global oil prices.

According to the firm’s latest financial report, in the third quarter, it earned over 22.98 trillion VND (989.5 million USD) in revenue, and 753 billion VND in gross profit while the gross profit margin rose to 3.28 percent as compared to the 2.61 percent recorded in the first half of the year.

The firm gained more than 73.85 trillion VND in revenue, and 1.34 trillion VND in profit before tax during January-September.

A representative from the BSR described this as a positive result although the firm did not complete its profit target of 3.1 trillion VND set from the beginning of the year.

Low and varying oil and gas crack spread posed tough challenges for BSR’s business. However, thanks to the firm’s efforts to improve operation efficiency, it produced more than 5.17 million tonnes of various products, and production costs as of the end of August were cut 6.1 percent as compared to the same time last year.

Global oil prices are expected to stabilise in the coming time, therefore the BSR feels confident about its profit in Q4.

Besides, the Government last month decided import tax on crude oil would be slashed to zero percent from the current 5 percent from November 1. The BSR will get indirect benefit from the decision as a zero tax rate will allow the firm to diversify the sources of crude oil used as input for production, the BSR representative said./.