Bulgargaz ended the first quarter with a profit of over BGN 19 million

Bulgargaz ended the first quarter with a profit of BGN 19 million 785 thousand. This is clear from the published interim financial report on the company's activities.

"The result of the company's activity is a profit after tax in the amount of BGN 19,785 thousand (BGN 19,785 thousand)," the company states. However, this is significantly less compared to the same period of the previous 2020. At that time the company had a profit of about BGN 49 million 929 thousand (BGN 49 929 thousand). The company explains this with the compensations included in last year's report by Gazprom.

At the same time, it is noteworthy that the quantities bought and sold are well above those for the same period last year.

Purchased quantities are growing

According to the report, during the reporting period the total quantities of natural gas purchased were of the order of 8,133,198 MWh - by 2,075,040 MWh more or by 34.25% of those in the same period of 2020. Then Bulgargaz purchased natural gas gas in a volume of 6,058,158 MWh.

The quantities purchased from imports in the first three months of this year amounted to 8,079,618 MWh compared to 4,915,278 MWh for the same period of the previous 2020.

Quantities purchased from a virtual outlet of Bulgartransgaz's gas transmission network. For example, if last year 1,060,000 MWh were purchased at a virtual outlet, then for the same period in 2021 they are only 2,755 MWh, and those under balancing contracts 50,825 MWh and are below those of the compared period of 2020

In addition, as of the end of the current quarter of 2021, there are no quantities of natural gas purchased from local production, and the blue fuel purchased under contracts with Bulgartransgaz is also decreasing.

Extraction and storage

In the part "Extraction and injection of natural gas", according to the data presented by the authors of the report, it is clear that in January-March this year the amount of natural gas was slightly lower than in the same period of the previous 2020. For example , if for the compared period of the last year the available quantities were in the volume of 2 329 714 MWh, then at the same time of this year they are of the order of 2 322 800 MWh. A slight decrease is reported in terms of the compared own production (2,322,320 MWh) in the three months of 2021 compared to the previous one (2,331,780 MWh), but data on injection are missing.

Sales are increasing

The sold quantities for the first three months of this year are by 24.70% (2,070,437 MWh) more - 10,452,599 MWh compared to 8,382,162 MWh at the same time in 2020. The increase in sales, according to the authors of the report is mainly due higher customer consumption in the Energy and Distribution Companies sectors and higher consumption in general.

Sales from regulated activity increased by 8.89% to 4,806,00 2 MWh (4,413,770 MWh in the current year) and by 13.10% at freely negotiated prices - up to 4,282,528 MWh m (3,786,373 MWh m).

Very high growth is reported in the sales on the Organized Exchange Market - by 649.41% to a volume of 1,364,069 MWh in the first quarter of the current 2021, compared to the same period in 2020.

The risk factors that the company does not report for the first time remain the sale of natural gas, lower than the purchase, trade and other liabilities and currency risk.

The discrepancy between the purchase and sale price hides risks for the public supplier when fulfilling the obligations. In the case of approval of regulated prices lower than the delivery prices, the sales revenues would not be enough to cover the actual costs for the purchase of natural gas, the authors of the report point out.

With regard to the currency risk, which has also been repeatedly commented on, the purchase of the price of blue fuel in dollars and its sale in BGN are indicated.

The credit risk, as it is clear from the report, is mainly due to the district heating companies, which have a problem with the collection of their receivables from customers and experience serious difficulties in repaying their liabilities at maturity.

Bulgargaz outlines the company's market goal as related to entering other gas markets, as well as financial stability.

Decrease in revenues and expenses

A decrease in revenues by over BGN 52 million is also reported by Bulgargaz for the first three months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.

According to the report for the indicated period of the current year the revenues amount to BGN 345 ​​million 570 thousand (BGN 345 ​​570 thousand). A year earlier they amounted to BGN 397 million 969 thousand (BGN 397 969 thousand). This is a decrease of 13.17% or BGN 52 million 399 thousand (BGN 52 399 thousand).

According to the report, the net result from the sale of natural gas at the end of the quarter amounted to BGN 6 million 262 thousand (BGN 6 262 thousand). For comparison, during the same period of the previous year the sales of natural gas reached BGN 44 million 060 thousand (BGN 44 060 thousand). Thus, the calculated decrease reaches BGN 37 million 798 thousand (BGN 37 798 thousand), and the conclusion is that this is due to the reduced purchase or sale price, despite the increase in the amount of natural gas sold.

The company also reports a decrease in expenses by 6.03% or by BGN 21 million 095 thousand. Thus, if in the first quarter of 2020 they reached BGN 349 million 683 thousand (BGN 349 683 thousand). ), during the compared period of 2021 fall to BGN 328 million 588 thousand (BGN 328 588 thousand).

The largest share of total costs is the cost of natural gas sold for the first quarter of this year - BGN 336 million 060 thousand (BGN 336 060 thousand), followed by costs for external services (a decrease of over 40 percent) .

The result of the operating activity is a profit of BGN 16 million 845 thousand (BGN 16 845 thousand) for the first quarter compared to a profit of BGN 48 million 176 thousand (BGN 48 176 thousand) for the same period of the previous year. This is a decrease of BGN 31 million 331 thousand (BGN 31 331 thousand) or 65.03%.

The financial result before taxes is a profit of BGN 16 million 982 thousand (BGN 16 982 thousand). In the compared period of 2020, this result before taxes was BGN 48 million 286 thousand (BGN 48 286 thousand). This means a decrease of 64.83%.

Bulgargaz explains this difference by saying that the financial statements as of March 31 last year reflect the amounts that Bulgargaz received as compensation for the period of negotiations from August 5, 2019 to March 31, 2020 from Gazprom. “. Accordingly, the refund of the amounts overpaid by the company's clients is also indicated.