China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation or Sinopec reported first-quarter 2019 earnings per share of $1.76, lower than the year-ago quarter’s $2.50 owing to rising operating costs and lower reefing yield.
However, the company’s top line increased 11.7% year over year to $106,337 million, thanks to higher oil equivalent production.
Operational Performance
Exploration and Production: During the three-month period ending Mar 31, 2019, Sinopec’s crude oil production dropped a marginal 0.8% year over year to 70.81 million barrels. However, natural gas volumes rose 6.7% year over year to 255.79billion cubic feet. Domestic crude oil production increased 0.2% year over year to 61.55million barrels. Overseas volumes were down 6.7% year over year to 9.26 million barrels. Total oil and gas production increased almost 2% year over year to 113.46 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Realized oil price during the first quarter was $57.66 per barrel, down 3.6% year over year. However, realized natural gas price rose 12.6% year over year to $7.07 per thousand cubic feet.
Higher oil equivalent productions helped the segment report profit of 2.1 billion yuan against a loss of 318 million yuan in the year-ago quarter.
Refining: The Refining business saw a 2.7% year-over-year improvement in refinery throughput to 61.78 million tons. Production of petroleum products increased 3.8% from the prior-year quarter to approximately 39.44 million tons. Despite these improvements, the business reports a profit of almost 12 billion yuan, down from 19 billion yuan in the March quarter of 2018, owing to lower refining yield.
Marketing and distribution: The segment recorded a profit of roughly 8 billion yuan, down from almost 9 billion yuan in the year-ago quarter.
Notably, the company reported total quarterly sales volume of refined oil products at 49.74 million tons, up 5.4% year over year.
Chemicals: The segment’s operating profit declined to almost 7 billion yuan from 8.5 billion yuan in the year-ago quarter.
In the March quarter of 2019, production of ethylene increased 1.8% year over year to 3,049 thousand tons from 2,995 thousand tons. Also, production of Synthetic resin was 4,178 thousand tons compared with 4,117 thousand tons a year ago.
Operating Expenses Rise
In the first quarter of 2019, Sinopec reported total operating expenses at 692.7 billion yuan, reflecting an increase of 17% year over year. In details, rising exploration expenses – including dry holes – and higher costs related to the purchased crude oil, products and operating supplies drove total costs.
Capital Expenditure
Capital expenditures for the January-March quarter of 2019 totaled 11.914 billion yuan. Out of this, 5.562 billion yuan was spent on exploration and production.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Sinopec currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Meanwhile, better-ranked players in the energy space are Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD - Free Report) , Hess Corporation (HES - Free Report) and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation . All the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Enterprise Products has average positive earnings surprise of 17% for the past four quarters.
Hess is likely to witness earnings growth of 116.2% through 2019.
Anadarko Petroleum has average positive earnings surprise of 6.6% for the past four quarters.
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China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation or Sinopec reported first-quarter 2019 earnings per share of $1.76, lower than the year-ago quarter’s $2.50 owing to rising operating costs and lower reefing yield.
However, the company’s top line increased 11.7% year over year to $106,337 million, thanks to higher oil equivalent production.
Operational Performance
Exploration and Production: During the three-month period ending Mar 31, 2019, Sinopec’s crude oil production dropped a marginal 0.8% year over year to 70.81 million barrels. However, natural gas volumes rose 6.7% year over year to 255.79billion cubic feet. Domestic crude oil production increased 0.2% year over year to 61.55million barrels. Overseas volumes were down 6.7% year over year to 9.26 million barrels. Total oil and gas production increased almost 2% year over year to 113.46 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Realized oil price during the first quarter was $57.66 per barrel, down 3.6% year over year. However, realized natural gas price rose 12.6% year over year to $7.07 per thousand cubic feet.
Higher oil equivalent productions helped the segment report profit of 2.1 billion yuan against a loss of 318 million yuan in the year-ago quarter.
Refining: The Refining business saw a 2.7% year-over-year improvement in refinery throughput to 61.78 million tons. Production of petroleum products increased 3.8% from the prior-year quarter to approximately 39.44 million tons. Despite these improvements, the business reports a profit of almost 12 billion yuan, down from 19 billion yuan in the March quarter of 2018, owing to lower refining yield.
Marketing and distribution: The segment recorded a profit of roughly 8 billion yuan, down from almost 9 billion yuan in the year-ago quarter.
Notably, the company reported total quarterly sales volume of refined oil products at 49.74 million tons, up 5.4% year over year.
Chemicals: The segment’s operating profit declined to almost 7 billion yuan from 8.5 billion yuan in the year-ago quarter.
In the March quarter of 2019, production of ethylene increased 1.8% year over year to 3,049 thousand tons from 2,995 thousand tons. Also, production of Synthetic resin was 4,178 thousand tons compared with 4,117 thousand tons a year ago.
Operating Expenses Rise
In the first quarter of 2019, Sinopec reported total operating expenses at 692.7 billion yuan, reflecting an increase of 17% year over year. In details, rising exploration expenses – including dry holes – and higher costs related to the purchased crude oil, products and operating supplies drove total costs.
Capital Expenditure
Capital expenditures for the January-March quarter of 2019 totaled 11.914 billion yuan. Out of this, 5.562 billion yuan was spent on exploration and production.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Sinopec currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Meanwhile, better-ranked players in the energy space are Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD - Free Report) , Hess Corporation (HES - Free Report) and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation . All the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Enterprise Products has average positive earnings surprise of 17% for the past four quarters.
Hess is likely to witness earnings growth of 116.2% through 2019.
Anadarko Petroleum has average positive earnings surprise of 6.6% for the past four quarters.
Will you retire a millionaire?
One out of every six people retires a multimillionaire. Get smart tips you can do today to become one of them in a new Special Report, “7 Things You Can Do Now to Retire a Multimillionaire.”
Click to get it free >>
Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double"
From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.
It’s a little-known chemical company that’s up 65% over last year, yet still dirt cheap. With unrelenting demand, soaring 2022 earnings estimates, and $1.5 billion for repurchasing shares, retail investors could jump in at any time.
This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.
Free: See Our Top Stock and 4 Runners Up >>
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