Grupa LOTOS has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2021. The company reported operating profit for the period of PLN 664.3m. Despite challenging conditions triggered by the pandemic, the company safely completed the main part of the refinery maintenance shutdown and flexibly managed its product mix.

• New client for Vectron in Poland – LOTOS Kolej
• Improvement of intermodal transport in Poland and Europe
• Delivery planned in 2021

The Polske Filmdager 2020 Festival will feature a mix of film screenings, bilingual discussion panels, meetings  with artists, as well as exhibitions and concerts intended to promote Polish culture among the Norwegian audience. This year, the festival will be held as a hybrid event, both on-site (in Oslo and Fredrikstad)  and online. The first film screenings are slated for October 10th. The main sponsor of the event is LOTOS Exploration & Production Norge.

The feasibility study for the small-scale LNG terminal in Gdańsk has been completed. As a next step, the decision will be made whether to proceed with the project. The terminal would be the first such facility in Poland, which could help increase the use of LNG as a fuel in both maritime and road transport and thus strengthen the LOTOS Group’s position as a leader in alternative fuels.

The Grupa LOTOS Management Board has recommended the payment of a dividend of PLN 1 per share for 2019. The recommendation demonstrates the Company is in a strong financial position and continues to deliver on its business strategy, in which the company declared it would maintain its dividend payment capacity. But the recommendation is also a rational decision aimed at securing funding for the company’s capex projects and providing liquidity in a difficult time of recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In late March 2020, Grupa LOTOS, LOTOS Paliwa and Remontowa LNG Systems signed an agreement to build a pilot LNG docking station, to be sited at the LOTOS service station located in Gdańsk-Osowa on the ring road bypassing the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolitan area (on the road to Gdynia). Its commercial operation is slated to start in mid 2021.

The financial performance recorded by the LOTOS Group in 2019 confirms its stable condition. Despite a challenging market environment, adjusted LIFO-based EBITDA was PLN 2.9bn. With 10.7 million tonnes of processed crude oil, the refinery fully utilised its production capacity. Sales of fuels in Poland were record-high at 8 million tonnes.

In Q3 YTD 2019, LOTOS delivered cumulative LIFO-based EBITDA of PLN 2.3bn, including PLN 0.86bn in Q3 alone. This confirms that the Group’s complementary business segments make LOTOS resilient to the significant changes in the market environment. In Q3, LOTOS Group paid a record-high dividend of PLN 555m, or PLN 3 per share, for 2018. Production from the Utgard field was launched ahead of schedule. The LOTOS refinery operated at full capacity in that period. Start-up of the key EFRA units commenced.

PGNiG Supply & Trading (PST), a member of the Polish Oil and Gas Company  Group (PGNiG), becomes the exclusive recipient of natural gas produced in Norway by LOTOS Exploration & Production Norge (LOTOS Norge), a LOTOS Group company engaged in exploration and production activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Production from Norway’s Utgard field was launched on September 16th 2019. The project had been completed about three months ahead of schedule with about 25% savings compared to the assumed budget. LOTOS Exploration & Production Norge (LOTOS Norge) is a partner in the licence, operated by Equinor. The field is an important part of the LOTOS strategy in exploration & production.

Supporting talented Polish athletes has been a vital part of Grupa LOTOS’ activities for years. In August 2019, the company signed an agreement that made it the Main Partner of Hubert Hurkacz, ranked among the most promising Polish tennis players of the young generation. The agreement is valid until the end of 2022.

Having performed a periodic credit rating review, the EuroRating agency maintained Grupa LOTOS’ rating at BBB- with a positive outlook. According to the agency’s classification, which is also commonly used by international rating agencies, the maintained level of credit risk indicates Grupa LOTOS has high creditworthiness and a sufficient capacity to meet its financial commitments in the long term.