WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish oil refiner Orlen swung to a loss of 40 million zlotys ($10.42 million) in the second quarter from a net profit of 6.1 billion zlotys a year earlier due to tax payments on windfall profits and lower gas prices, the state-controlled company said on Wednesday.
Orlen said its second-quarter earnings before depreciation and amortisation, net of the effect of crude price movements on the value of inventories – known as EBITDA LIFO – and excluding write-downs and regulatory payments, rose 8% year over year to 11.31 billion zlotys, confirming an earlier estimate.
A windfall tax used to stabilise gas prices for vulnerable consumers cost the company 7.7 billion zlotys during the second quarter, more than double 3.7 billion zlotys from the same period a year ago.
Margins remained under pressure at the refiner’s petrochemicals business, which recorded an operating loss of 842 million zlotys, the company said.
On the refining side, the second-quarter operating profit rose 25% to 2.2 billion zlotys, as higher volumes and a one-off insurance compensation helped offset weaker margins.
The upstream segment saw a quarterly operating loss of over 5.3 billion zlotys, due to the windfall tax and a drop in gas prices, which also hit the gas segment’s operating profit. That fell 51% year on year to 3.6 billion zlotys.
The company said capex reached 14.0 billion zlotys in the first half of the year and that it cut the full-year plan by 3.3 billion zlotys to 35.3 billion zlotys.
It added that oil prices were likely to rise from last year as global demand picks up and it expected margins to improve in the petrochemical business.
($1 = 3.8370 zlotys)
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Anna Koper; Editing by Helen Popper and Cynthia Osterman)
