WARSAW (Reuters) -Orlen's first-quarter net profit slumped 70% to 2.77 billion zlotys ($704.82 million) due to the impact of a windfall tax and a weaker refining performance, Poland's top oil refiner said on Wednesday, missing expectations. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the quarter fell by 53% year-on-year to 7.73 billion zlotys, while revenue declined to 82.33 billion, the company said. Analysts' estimates were for net profit of 3.24 billion zlotys.
A Swiss unit of Polish refiner Orlen paid two Dubai-based intermediary companies $330 million for Venezuelan oil, but Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA never received the money, according to sources and a document seen by Reuters. Prosecutors in Poland are investigating the loss of about $400 million by Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS) in prepayments, mostly for Venezuelan oil, in what has become a politically charged story in Warsaw. State-controlled Orlen agreed last year to buy several oil cargoes from Venezuela during a temporary softening by Washington of sanctions on the country, and sent supertankers to pick them up.
WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish oil refiner Orlen has cancelled contracts to buy Venezuelan oil and refined products after losing more than $400 million on prepayments for deliveries it never received, a company manager said on Tuesday. Oil and tanker charter contracts put in place by the Swiss based unit Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS) were scrapped as tankers weren't loading and a U.S. sanctions window was about to close, the person said. The U.S. Treasury Department in October issued a licence lifting sanctions on Venezuela's oil production and exports through mid-April, prompting trading houses to buy cargoes from little known intermediaries registered as customers of state company PDVSA.