PetroEnergy profit up 327% in Q1

PetroEnergy Resources Corp. saw its consolidated net income balloon by more than four fold, or 327 percent, to reach $4.3 million in the first quarter from $1 million in the same period of 2016.

The surge was attributed to higher electricity sales from PetroEnergy’s renewable energy (RE) development and power generation assets in the Philippines and the slight increase in crude oil revenue from its Gabon project along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa.

“Our decision to venture into RE, in addition to our upstream oil business, has started paying off,” PetroEnergy president Milagros V. Reyes said.

The company kicked off its RE initiative with the 20-megaWatt (MW) Maibarara geothermal project in Batanga—a joint venture with Phinma Energy Corp.—which was declared in 2011 as the first commercial project under the RE Law of 2008 and went online in 2014.

“This [Maibarara] is now being expanded to add another 12-MW generating unit,” Reyes said.

PetroEnergy also has the 36-MW Nabas-1 wind power project in Aklan that went onstream in 2015, and the 50-MW Tarlac-1 solar power facility that went online in 2016.

In the first quarter, PetroEnergy’s subsidiaries delivered a total of 102.91 gigaWatt-hours (gWh) of electricity, jumping 34 percent year-on-year from 76.60 gWh previously.

Francisco G. Delfin Jr., president of PetroEnergy unit Maibarara Geothermal Inc., said the increase in consolidated sales was credited to output from the facilities in Maibarara and Tarlac.

Gross revenue from all three facilities, including Nabas-1, revved up by 36 percent year-on-year to P693.6 million from P511.1 million.