S Korean Kogas' net loss narrows to $129 million in Q3 on price hikes
Seoul (Platts)--19Nov2012/338 am EST/838 GMT
South Korean state-run Korea Gas Corp. -- the world's largest buyer of
LNG -- said Monday its net loss narrowed to Won 140.5 billion ($129.1
million) in the third quarter, compared with a Won 357.6 billion net loss a
year earlier.
Operating loss also narrowed to Won 36.5 billion in the quarter ended
September, from an operating loss of Won 137.8 billion recorded in the same
period last year. Sales revenue for the third quarter was Won 6.45 trillion,
up 29% from Won 5 trillion a year earlier.
In the second quarter, the company recorded a Won 46 billion net profit,
an operating income of Won 228.8 billion with a revenue of Won 7.90 trillion.
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For the first nine months of the year, net profit jumped 260.3% year on
year to Won 319.2 billion, from Won 88.6 billion a year earlier. Operating
profit rose 44% year on year to Won 911.1 billion for the first three
quarters and revenue climbed 33.3% year on year to Won 26.11 trillion.
Kogas attributed the improving performance on a yearly basis to gas
price hikes. South Korea has raised domestic gas rates by 4.9% on average
from June 30 this year. The government had frozen gas prices since October
last year when it increased the rate by 5.3%.
In 2011, the government had raised prices in January and May, by 4.9%
and 4.8%, respectively.
Kogas, which has a monopoly on domestic natural gas sales, sold 25.82
million mt of LNG in the first nine months this year, up 5.6% from a year ago
when it sold 24.44 million mt. Kogas plans to import 36.46 million mt of LNG
in 2012, up from 33.97 million mt imported last year. It sold 33.57 million
mt of LNG in 2011, up 7.6% from 31.20 million mt the previous year.
--Charles Lee, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Haripriya Banerjee, haripriya_banerjee@platts.com