Results are pulled by record crude oil processing, high sales and reliable operations
A record-breaking crude oil processing at the level of 6 million tonnes, the historically highest volume of polymer production (increase by more than 13 %), a high demand for polymers and motor fuels along with smooth operations of key production facilities without disruptions – these were key factors that underpinned the y/y increase of Slovnaft Group operating profit by 18 % to SKK 9.4 billion (adjusted operating profit excluding the main one-off items was up y/y by 4% to SKK 7.9bn).
Whereas the operating profit in 2006 was weakened by SKK 1.2 billion due to necessary and in every refinery periodically performed turnaround, which resulted in lower production and sales pushing Slovnaft results in Q4 2006 to red, no turnaround of key production units was performed in 2007. This significantly helped the performance.
Due to a record-breaking crude oil processing and strong demand, Slovnaft increased the volume of refinery products´ sales on export markets in spite of high initial values from previous years by 5.6 % y/y and on the domestic market by 5 %. Thus, Slovnaft sold by more than 280 000 tonnes of refinery products more than in 2006.
The volume of polymer sales increased by more than 10 % to 427 thousand tonnes; this underlines the importance of the Petrochemical division for the Slovnaft Group. Thus, its share in total sales of the Group reached the fifth.
In spite of significant increase in sales volumes of refinery and petrochemical products, total net sales revenues weakened by 5% to SKK 114.6 billion, which was caused mainly by the strengthening Slovak crown. While the Slovak crown strengthened against USD y/y by 17 %, it was by 9 % against EUR.
“Slovnaft Group confirmed its strong performance also in 2007. Unlike 2006, when turnaround of key production units negatively affected financial results, 2007 was optimal from the viewpoint of operation reliability and utilization of production facilities. These importantly contributed to the sound result”, said Mr. Oszkár Világi, CEO of Slovnaft.
In spite of a lower y/y number of filling stations in 2007 by 27, the sales volumes of fuels at Slovnaft filling stations remained at almost the same level as a year before. However, the efficiency of sales increased dynamically, when the average volume of sale per station increased by 13 % compared with 2006. The structure of fuels sold at Slovnaft filling stations confirmed an increasing interest of drivers in diesel. As of the end of 2007, Slovnaft operated 209 filling stations in Slovakia.
According to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, the average price of diesel reached 36.80 SKK/l in 2007 which was by almost 3 crowns lower than in 2006. The retail price of petrol in the Slovak Republic in 2007 reached the average level of about 37.40 SKK/l which was about 2 SKK/litre less than in 2006. The strengthening Slovak crown had an important damping effect of the international quoted prices’ increase impact on the domestic prices of fuels. According to the Eurostat data, net prices of petrol and diesel were on average ranked in the lower third of the 25 European Union states in 2007.