Refiners Face Heavy 2008 Losses

摘要

Fears that Poland's two refiners, PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos, were affected worse than thought in late 2008 by falling oil prices and economic turmoil look likely to be realized as the two companies conceded in early February that they face large losses for the year because of revaluations of their crude inventories.rnPoland's largest refiner, PKN, said February 3 it expected to post a net loss for both the fourth quarter and full year due to the revaluation of its crude inventories and additional costs triggered by the weakening of the Polish zloty. "Due to the drastic fall in oil prices, operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2008 was lowered by an estimated Zloty 2.5 billion ($714 million)," the company said in a trading update. "As a result of the weakening zloty in relation to the dollar and euro, financial costs may reach Zloty 1.5 billion and net profit in the fourth quarter and in the whole of 2008 will be negative." PKN posted a Zloty 2.32 billion net profit in Q4 2007.