August 14 (SeeNews) - Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] said on Tuesday its first-half net profit fell by 10.1% year-on-year to 797.7 million lei ($195 million/171 million euro) due to higher expenses.
Exploration expenses rose by 54% to 112.5 million lei during January-June, reflecting a change in the accounting policy by which the exploration expenses related to seismic prospects, geological and geophysical studies and other similar works are recorded as expenses at the time these works are performed, and these costs not being capitalized anymore, the company said in its first-half financial report submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
The consolidated revenue from gas sales in the first half rose 12% on the year to 2.12 billion lei. The increase compensated for a 27% drop in revenue from gas storage services and a 58.9% fall in revenue from electricity sales.
According to data provided by Romanian power transmission system operator Transelectrica, the market share of Romgaz has decreased to 1.45% in the first six months of 2018, from 3.13% a year earlier, the report showed.
Romgaz produced 2,640 million cubic meters of natural gas in the first half of 2018, up 3.2% on the year.
During the review period, Romania's natural gas consumption decreased by 3.55% on the year to 71.27 TWh, while Romgaz deliveries dropped by 2.96% as compared to the previous period, to 31.11 TWh.
The company's total revenues rose 3.44% on the year in the six months through June, reaching 2.47 billion lei.
For 2018, Romgaz has scheduled investments of 1.6 million lei, out of which it used 652,741 lei in the first half.
In June, Romgaz said it has received a 20.99 million lei grant from the energy ministry for a project to build a combined cycle gas turbine power plant in Iernut, in central Romania.
The company's majority shareholder is the Romanian state with a 70% stake, with the balance of 30% in free float on the BVB.
Shares in Romgaz traded 0.31% higher at 32.2 lei lei by 1540 CET on Tuesday on the BVB.
(1 euro=4.6590 Romanian lei)