Kazakhstan's KMG Sees 67% Growth in Profits
Kazakhstan's state-run KazMunayGas (KMG) reported a 67% yr/yr surge in net profits in 2019 to tenge 1.158 trillion ($3bn). In results published on March 12, the company attributed some of the growth to rising gas exports to China, which reached tenge 674bn. This was 22.9% more than in 2018. It did not say how much gas it had shipped to China, but it exported 4.4bn m3 to the market in 2018, and China's overall intake of Kazakh gas was 7.5bn m3 in 2019, according to Chinese data.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation stood at tenge 1.96 trillion, 15% more than 2018.
But revenues declined by 1.9% yr/yr to tenge 6.86 trillion, thanks to a 10% yr/yr decline in the average Brent benchmark price. Oil revenues were down 13.2% at tenge 1.57 trillion. Income from KMG's shares in joint ventures and associate companies rose by 18.7% yr/yr to tenge 828bn.
KMG's net debt stood at tenge 2.36 trillion at the end of 2019, up 8.6% compared with a year earlier.