KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd net profit fell 16.28% quarter-on-quarter in the three months ended Sept 30, 2021 (1QFY22) to RM41.52 million from RM49.6 million in 4QFY21, as it sold fewer barrels of oil despite higher realised oil price.

Revenue fell 3% to RM246.69 million from RM253.02 million, while earnings per share fell to 2.07 sen from 2.49 sen, its latest results filings showed. No dividend was announced.

The group sold 757,062 barrels of oil in 1QFY22, down from 862,951 barrels in 4QFY21. It booked an average realised oil prices of US$75/bbl and US$76.31/bbl in North Sabah and Anasuria respectively, from US$72.07/bbl and US$62.67/bbl respectively in 4QFY21.

This is mainly led by lower average uptime of 81% at North Sabah PSC, from 95% previously, amid Covid-19-related operational constraints that disrupted its contractors' services. The North Sabah PSC contributed 74.7% of total barrels of oil it sold in the quarter.

On a year-on-year basis, Hibiscus net profit in 1QFY22 was up four-fold to RM41.52 million or 2.07 sen per share from RM10.03 million or 0.63 sen, mainly due to the doubling of oil price to US$80/bbl from US$40/bbl. Quarterly revenue rose 69.7% to RM246.69 million from RM145.49 million.

On prospects, Hibiscus said its acquisition of Repsol’s O&G assets in Malaysia and Vietnam announced in June came with a forecast three-fold increase in production to 26,000 barrels per day.

“Given this outlook of increased production through the completion of a transformative acquisition, and a strengthening oil price environment, we look forward to a positive performance for the financial year ending June 30, 2022,” the company said.

Shares of Hibiscus rose 1.5 sen or 1.65% to settle at 92.5 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.86 billion.