February 15 (SeeNews) - Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] said its net profit surged 82.4% year-on-year to 1.868 billion lei ($495 million/401 million euro) in 2017 on the back of higher gas and electricity sales and lower expenses.
Total revenues rose 35% on the year in 2017, reaching 4.58 billion lei, mainly driven by the sales of natural gas and underground gas storage services as well as electricity production, the company said in its annual financial report submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
In 2017, Romgaz increased its electricity production by 14.5% on the year due to low production generated by hydro and wind power plants, the prolonged heatwave, the repair and maintenance schedules of some thermal energy groups and the unavailability of thermal or nuclear
production units. According to data provided by Romanian power transmission system operator Transelectrica, the market share of Romgaz has increased to 2.95% in 2017, the report showed.
Romgaz produced 5.158 million cubic meters of natural gas in 2017, up 22.2% on the year. The increase was driven by lower temperatures in early 2017 and higher electricity production.
Total investments rose 57% to 781.7 million lei in 2017, below the 1.14 billion lei investment target in 2017.
In 2016, Romgaz saw its net profit decrease by 14.2% year-on-year to 1.02 billion lei, mainly affected by a drop in domestic gas demand, a fall in gas prices and strong competition from gas imports.
The government owns 70% of Romgaz's share capital, with the balance of 30% in free float on the BVB.
Shares of blue-chip Romgaz traded 2.79% higher at 34.95 lei lei by 1049 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.6588 Romanian lei)