Dubai, UAE– Saudi Arabian refining and petrochemicals company Petro Rabigh has posted a net loss of SAR964 million ($257 million) for the first quarter of 2023, compared to SAR724.8 million in the same quarter last year.
In a Tadawul disclosure, the company attributed the loss to “unfavorable market conditions adversely affecting the margins for both refined and petrochemical products”.
Contributing to the net loss was the partial shutdown for scheduled turnaround of its Phase II units from Dec 1, 2022 to Jan 23, 2023 and the shutdown of its Ethane cracker unit from Mar 1-Mar 20 for maintenance. Also, a sharp increase in interest rates resulted in higher financial costs for the current quarter, the company said.
Compared to the last quarter of 2022, however, the company reported a 46.77 percent fall in net losses from SAR 1.81 billion in Q4 2022 to SAR946 million in Q1 2023, due to a “measured improvement in market conditions favorably impacting the margins for refined products”, Rabigh said.
The accumulated losses as of Mar 31, 2023, amounted to SAR 2.66 billion, representing 15.96 percent of the company’s share capital of SAR16.71 billion.
