Petrobras reported record annual net income of R$106.7 billion relative to 2021. The result, 15 times higher than the 2020 earnings, came above the R$100 billion projected by analysts.
After a new solid earnings report, that of the fourth quarter, the company proposed another dividend distribution, amounting to R$37.3 billion, to be paid in May. In the end, the remuneration to shareholders for the results achieved last year will total R$101.4 billion, the oil company’s highest ever. The federal government, which controls the company, will receive about a third of this.
Benefiting from the appreciation of oil, the company earned R$31.5 billion in profits in the fourth quarter, down 47.4% year over year. At the time, the state-owned company’s results were strongly inflated by the reversal of impairments. When compared to the third quarter of 2021, there was an increase of 1.2% in the result.
In the year of 2021, the record profit was linked to the 77% increase in the price of Brent oil, in reais, in the period. Two other factors boosted the result: the higher sales volumes in the domestic market and better diesel and gasoline margins – which offset the drop in oil exports, the increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) acquisition costs due to the water crisis and a revision in health insurance plans.
Petrobras’s net revenues totaled R$134.19 billion in the fourth quarter, up 79% year over year. In 2021, revenues totaled R$452.7 billion, 66.4% more than the previous year. The EBITDA, on the other hand, grew 33.8% in the fourth quarter, to R$62.9 billion, in comparison with the months from October to December 2020; and 64.1% in the year, to R$234.6 billion.
Source: Valor International