Cepsa increases its EBITDA by 62% and announces almost doubled investments until 2025

March 3 (Reuters) – Cepsa on Friday announced a 62% increase in its gross operating profit, driven by rising hydrocarbon prices, saying it would almost double its investments over the next three years as part of its transition to clean energy.

The energy company said that in 2022 the EBITDA or gross operating profit (adjusted to the cost of replacement of inventories, CCS for its acronym in English) was 2,939 million euros, against 1,815 million euros in 2021.

The group attributed the increase to “improving market conditions, higher underlying raw material prices, higher refining margins and optimization initiatives which continued to help improve performance in all activities and all functional areas”.

According to Reuters calculations, international oil majors more than doubled their profits in 2022 to $219 billion, shattering previous records in a year of volatile energy prices, in which the Russian invasion of Ukraine has reshaped markets and, in some cases, climate ambitions. of the sector.

Rising profits have given oil companies the opportunity to increase spending on oil and gas projects, and some the opportunity to rethink energy transition strategies to meet new demands for security of supply.

Cepsa’s investment in 2022 increased by 57%, to 743 million euros (473 million in 2021), as part of the “Positive Motion” strategy to reorient its activity towards renewable energies.

The company will anticipate defunding projects with a total investment of more than 3,600 million euros at very low prices, more than 50% will be destined for sustainable negotiations, where it assumes an investment increase of 93% with respect to very high last years.

Cepsa, which is not listed on the stock exchange and is owned by Mubadala (Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund) and the investment company Carlyle, presented in March 2022 the “Positive Motion” strategic plan to invest 7,000 to 8 000 million euros in the present decade.

In the 2022 results presented on Friday, CCS’s net income amounted to 790 million euros (1.1 billion euros in IFRS accounting standards), compared to 310 million euros in 2021 (661 million euros in IFRS standards), “thanks to a recovery of demand in a supply – a constrained oil and gas market, which has resulted in higher prices for crude oil and natural gas”, according to the group.

Crude oil prices in 2022 have risen significantly from the previous year, averaging $101.2 per barrel over the period, representing a 43% increase, according to Cepsa itself.

In total, the cost of crude oil in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 12% lower than the previous quarter ($88.7 against $100.9), amid fears of an economic recession and an increase in crude supply.

(Reporting by Tomás Cobos; editing by Darío Fernández)