S-Oil Q2 net more than quadruples

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- S-Oil Corp., South Korea's third-largest refiner, said Thursday that its second-quarter profit more than quadrupled from a year earlier thanks to increased sales. Net profit came to 239.7 billion won (US$222.6 million) in the April-June period, compared with 53.8 billion won in the same period last year, said S-Oil in a regulatory filing. Sales jumped 63.4 percent to 8 trillion won over the cited period, while operating profit rose 13.2 percent to 241 billion won. The strong second-quarter performance resulted from a rise in sales of lubricating oil, S-Oil said in a statement. Sales of lubricating oil reached 597 billion won on increased demand in advanced countries. Its mainstream refining sector posted 6.5 trillion won in sales in the second quarter but had a net operating loss of 14 billion won due to a temporary fuel price cut in the domestic market. The nation's four major refineries, including S-Oil, lowered prices of gasoline and diesel by 100 won per liter between April and June in line with the government's efforts to ease rising inflation in Asia's fourth-largest economy. The company also said that its first half sales rose 60.2 percent on-year to 14.8 trillion won and net profit reached 792 billion won in the first six months, up from 158 billion won from a year ago. In the outlook for the second half, S-Oil predicted that demand for oil products will decrease slightly, but the market will be more stabilized than last year.