Greece’s Elinoil: Exports drove revenue and profits

Sales on the domestic liquid fuel market are declining despite the increase in tourist traffic.

Greek oil companies derive their revenues and profits from international operations and in this way send their own message to the public debate that has opened on excess profits.

After the financial results of both the industry giants Motor Oil and Helleniq Energy, another company, Elinoil, came to confirm with its nine-month performance the source of profits and increased sales.

ELINOIL announced a 159% increase in sales to 2.8 billion euros and EBITDA profits higher by 88% to 23.2 from 12.3 million euros.

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Extraversion

From the sales of the listed company, it follows that the main source of profitability was the international fuel trade.

More specifically in the nine months sales reached 2.132 million metric tons compared to 1.346 million metric tons last year, showing a significant increase of 58%.

On the contrary in the internal market, sales of motor fuels (petrol and diesel) in the period 01/01- 30/09/2022 amounted to 288,000 metric tons compared to 281,000 metric tons in the corresponding period of 2021, showing an increase of 2%.

Sales of heating oil showed an increase of 2%, while sales of fuel oil-bitumen moved to -11%.

According to the management of ELINOIL, “the effects of the energy crisis of the war in Ukraine and the European sanctions of the EU against Russia were also reflected in the third quarter and negatively affected the course of the Greek economy. Despite significant growth in tourism, which exceeded expectations and moved close to 2019 levels, the recession and strong double-digit inflation pressures significantly reduced consumer purchasing power, reducing consumption and having a negative impact in the course of internal fuel market sales”

The messages

The CEO of ELINOIL, Yiannis Aligizakis, with a statement sends an indirect, but not clear, message about the excess profits of the oil companies and the trade sector.

He comments on the fact of the extension until the end of the year of the ceiling on profit margins, hinting at the contribution of the sector to the energy crisis and also to the containment of prices:

“Amid persistent pressures on the domestic fuel market, due to the energy and inflationary crisis and the extension of the cap which resulted in a significant decrease in the profitability of the domestic market, the company covered the decrease in its revenues through its growth in new international markets taking advantage of the high margins that exist in these markets”, commented Mr. Aligizakis