(Updating to include comments and details) By Jeff Fick
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
RIO DE JANEIRO -(Dow Jones)- Higher domestic fuel prices, record international oil prices and a weaker real currency pushed third-quarter net profit at Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR) to a second consecutive quarterly record.
Petrobras, as the company is also known, registered a third-quarter net profit of 10.9 billion Brazilian reals ($4.9 billion), up from BRL5.53 billion in the year-ago quarter. Petrobras released its quarterly figures in Brazilian GAAP terms.
The company's third-quarter net profit was the highest quarterly profit ever recorded by Petrobras, topping the BRL8.78 billion registered in the second quarter.
In a statement, Petrobras attributed the rise in third-quarter net profit to higher domestic gasoline and oil prices, as well as higher international oil prices and gains from the U.S. dollar's appreciation against the Brazilian real.
"Although we observed the start of a movement toward lower international oil prices during the quarter, the average value of a barrel of Brent was $115, significantly higher than the average price of $75 a barrel in the third quarter of 2007," Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli said in the earnings statement.
Gabrielli also pointed to a domestic price increase the company implemented on May 2, which boosted gasoline prices 10% and diesel prices 15% at the wholesale level.
Brazilian gasoline and diesel fuel sales represent about 30% of the company's overall sales volumes. The oil company had kept prices steady since September 2005.
The higher prices combined to push the company's net revenue to BRL67.46 billion in the third quarter, up 52% from BRL44.47 billion in the third quarter of 2007, Petrobras said. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the third quarter were BRL15.68 billion, up from BRL13.06 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Petrobras also continued to increase its production volumes during the quarter, despite a strike by oil-platform workers in the key Campos Basin. Several rigs ramped up production or entered service during the quarter in the basin, which is responsible for more than 80% of Brazil's crude oil output.
Total crude oil and natural gas production rose 5.6% to an average 2.438 million barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE, a day.
At the end of September, Petrobras reached a monthly record for oil production in Brazil, with average daily production of 1.897 million barrels, the company said.
The devaluation of the real currency against the U.S. dollar also gave a boost to the bottom line during the quarter, Petrobras said.
According to Gabrielli, the company holds BRL13.6 billion worth of activities subject to foreign exchange fluctuations. The real's 20% slide against the dollar during the third quarter resulted in a BRL3.5 billion gain during the quarter.
Petrobras shares traded 0.4% lower at BRL23.85 in after-hours trading on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange.
-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-21-2586-6085; jeff.fick@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=6NlmY0aFxCN%2F%2BlgX8%2BRclQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 11, 2008 16:46 ET (21:46 GMT)

Publié le 11 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones