The newly appointed chief executive of state-owned oil and gas conglomerate PTT vows to turn its revenue back to black this year after suffering a considerable first-quarter loss of 1.5 billion baht because of the collapse of oil prices.
PTT president and chief executive Auttapol Rerkpiboon said he expects revenue will recover in the second half this year as long as the Covid-19 pandemic eases and the domestic economy begins to rebound.
On April 30, the board of PTT Plc appointed Mr Auttapol to the position effective May 13, replacing Chansin Treenuchagron.
Mr Auttapol said PTT has strong performance potential this year and expects the firm will invest 140 billion baht in 2020 from its five-year capital expenditure budget of 1.5 trillion baht from 2020-2024.
PTT adjusted its operations to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and set up the PTT Group Vital Center as a war room to manage the crisis.
The air and land travel restrictions to manage the outbreak, as well as an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, has decimated oil prices, deeply cutting into revenues for PTT and its subsidiaries.
In response, PTT Group has implemented cost control measures, a "Decrease-Discard-Defer" policy and is collaborating among the group for value chain optimisation in order to manage demand, supply and inventory, including liquidity management and maintaining the financial strength of the group.
Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said the ministry ordered PTT to implement measures to cope with the contagion.
"The ministry will cooperate and support PTT in dealing with the outbreak, as it is a crisis for the oil company," he said.
"The first priority for the ministry is for PTT to turn around its losses."
The minister said the new chief executive should work hard through this crisis to push forward the company's performance towards future growth.