Petrobras profit up 32%

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras said on Monday its second-quarter net profit rose 32 per cent from 2010, driven by gains linked to financial investments and currency fluctuation.The strong results beat analysts’ estimates, but came entirely from nonoperational gains as rising costs offset the effects of higher oil prices and the company’s policy of keeping Brazilian fuel prices fixed caused a loss in the refining division.Petrobras, which is carrying out the industry’s largest investment plan at $225 billion over five years, has won billions of dollars in investments to develop huge deepwater crude discoveries. But it has been slow to turn those reserves into higher profits by ramping up output.The company posted net profit of 10.94 billion reais ($6.88 billion) compared with 8.30 billion reais a year earlier. The average estimate of eight analysts in a Reuters earnings poll projected profit of 10.20 billion reais.The increase was driven by a 2.90-billion-real ($1.82 billion) gain from investing cash raised in a massive share offering last year and from a strengthening of the real — which lowers the value of debt denominated in foreign currency. From / Gulf Today