Malaysia's Petronas posts quarterly profit but cautious on outlook

Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd said on Tuesday it swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a loss in the year-ago period, helped by cost-cutting efforts, but the state oil company maintained a cautious outlook for 2017.

 

Petronas, as the company is known, maintained what it called a "conservative" outlook for this year, saying it expects oil prices to remain uncertain as it continues to pursue lower costs amid a drop in global oil prices.

 

"I don't know whether the worst is over or not. We are preparing ourselves for a very uncertain second half of this year," Petronas group CEO Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin told reporters.He said Petronas was budgeting for an oil price of $45 a barrel for 2017. Benchmark Brent crude was trading around $51.50 a barrel on Tuesday, close to a three-month low.

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Petronas posted a profit after tax of 11.3 billion ringgit ($2.54 billion) for the October-December period, compared with a 2.96 billion ringgit net loss for the same quarter a year ago, primarily due to a drop in operating expenses and impairment costs.