Conpet has budgeted a declining profit for this year

The transporter of petroleum products Conpet Ploieşti (COTE) has budgeted for this year a net profit of 40.9 million lei, 28.5% below the preliminary one of last year, against the background of the increase in expenses to a greater extent than of revenues, according to the documents published by the company on its website on Friday.

On the revenue side, Conpet estimates for this year total revenues of 588.7 million lei, 7.6% above those preliminary for 2023, due to the 8.2% increase in operating revenues, which represent 99% of total revenues of the company.

Conpet estimates a total quantity of transported products of 7.06 million tons, against the background of the 28% increase in the quantity related to the import subsystem, up to 4.28 million tons, while for the country subsystem it forecasts a decrease in the quantities transported with 5%, compared to the preliminary ones for last year.Regarding the prices, the company shows that, for the country subsystem, it applied the tariff of 128 lei per ton and differentiated prices by tranches and companies for the import subsystem.

"The volume and structure of transport revenues contained in the BVC proposal for 2024 were substantiated based on the quantities of crude oil to be transported communicated by OMV Petrom and those contracted with Petrotel Lukoil and Rompetrol-Petromidia and the transport tariffs approved by the ANRM Order of 15 December 2023", states the Revenue and Expenditure Budget of Conpet.

Thus, the company budgeted total revenues from transport services of 524.6 million lei, compared to 428.9 million lei in 2023.

On the expenses side, the company estimates total expenses of 537.2 million lei, 11.9% above the preliminary ones of last year.

"In the BVC for 2024 were included expenses that are not found in the estimates for 2023 regarding: expenses with compensatory payments, allowances of the Board of Directors and directors with a mandate contract appointed in accordance with the provisions of GEO 109/2011, the decrease in income financial as a result of the decrease in cash availability from bank accounts, representing the modernization quota, as a result of the payments made in 2023 to the immobilization suppliers for the works carried out for large investment objectives financed from the modernization quota and the decreasing estimate of the interest rates offered by the banks for term deposits", the document states.

For this year, Conpet has budgeted expenses with goods and services of 134.2 million lei, 14.4% more than in 2023, and expenses with personnel of 209.3 million lei, increasing by 7.7% , for the same reporting period. Other operating expenses are budgeted at 143.1 million lei, 13.3% more than the preliminary ones for last year.

According to the BVC, the recognition in the operating expenses realized/estimated in 2023 of some amounts representing differences related to the previous year have an impact in the sense of decreasing the expenses of 2023. "This impact (decrease in expenses) can be found in the chapter "utilities expenses" and appears following the very late issuance of the energy invoices related to the previous year (subsequent to the preparation of the financial statements) and the volatility of the price of electricity in the second semester of 2022. This situation determined the calculation of the expenses related to energy consumption in December based on of energy quantity estimates, the adjustments being made in the months of May and June 2023 when the invoices were received. The impact in the expenditure growth index is 0.9 pp (n.r. percentage points)".

According to the document, in the BVC for the year 2024 an increase in the share with the oil royalty was foreseen from 10% to 11.5%, according to GEO no. 91/27 October 2023.

For this year, Conpet has scheduled investments worth 85 million lei, of which 65 million lei come from the modernization quota and 20 million lei from its own sources. The investments include network upgrades, planned repairs and the construction of a crude oil tank at the Videle station.

This year's budget and investments of Conpet will be subject to the vote of the company's shareholders on February 28, according to the notice published on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The Romanian State, through the Ministry of Energy, has 58.72% of the shares of the carrier of petroleum products.