Dung Quat refinery operator doubles post-tax profit to $614 mln in 2022

Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical JSC, operator of Vietnam's first oil refinery Dung Quat, earned a post-tax profit of VND14,394 billion ($613.8 million) in 2022, up 115.4% year-on-year.

The firm, listed on the unlisted public company market UPCoM as BSR, posted a revenue of VND167,123 billion ($7.13 billion), up 65.34%.

As a result, the business exceeded its revenue and profit targets by 82% and 11 times, respectively.

In Q4/2022, BSR earned a post-tax profit of VND1,494 billion ($63.7 million), down from VND2,700 billion ($114.5 million) in Q4/2021.

BSR attributed the fall to the rising prices of crude oil. Average prices skyrocketed from $49.89 per barrel in December 2020 to $83.66 in October 2021, $87.22 in January 2022, and $123.7 in June 2022.

As the rates went down to $81.12 in December 2022, the firm had expected worse performance in Q4/2022, versus that of a year ago.

Another reason is the price difference between crude oil and oil products, like diesel oil, A1 jet fuel, petroleum, polypropylene.

Vietnam has two operational oil refineries - Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical complex in Thanh Hoa province, and Dung Quat Refinery in Quang Ngai province, both in the central region.

Nghi Son is a $9 billion refinery co-owned by Petrovietnam, Kuwait Petroleum Europe B.V. (KPE), and Japan’s Mitsui Chemical and Idemitsu Kosan Co. Dung Quat Refinery is a Petrovietnam subsidiary and has received more than $3 billion in investments.