S-Oil bleeds W1tr in Q1, worst in its history

S-Oil on Monday reported a swing to an operating loss of more than 1 trillion won ($815 million) in the first quarter due to a sharp fall in oil prices amid the COVID-19 outbreak, recording the worst figure since the company started business in 1976.

The Korean refiner posted an operating loss of some 1,007,300,000,000 won in the first quarter from 270.4 billion won from the same period last year.

The company’s revenue dipped 4.2 percent to 5.1 trillion won on-year.

“The loss was triggered by massive inventory-related losses after a fall in oil prices and weak refining margins due to the global spread of the COVID-19 outbreak,” a S-Oil official said.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)