(LEAD) S-Oil-Q4 earnings

(LEAD) S-Oil Q4 net more than triples on improved demand for petrochem

(ATTN: ADDS more details on earnings result throughout, photo; COMBINES with story slugged S-Oil-2021 earnings; RECASTS headline, lead)

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- S-Oil Corp., South Korea's No. 3 oil refiner, said Thursday its fourth-quarter net profit more than tripled from a year earlier on the back of a recovery in demand for petrochemical products amid rising oil prices.

Net income came to 410.1 billion won (US$341.2 million) for the October-December period, compared with a profit of 121.1 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit grew by more than sixfold to 556.7 billion won, while sales nearly doubled to 8.29 trillion won over the cited period.

The operating profit was 5.5 percent higher than the average estimate compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

The strong bottom line came as the cracking margin improved amid the robust recovery in global demand for petrochemical products, the company said.

The rise in oil prices also helped boost the value of the inventories.

For all of 2021, the company posted a combined net income of 1.5 trillion won, the largest ever.

The operating profit for the year came to 2.3 trillion won, a record high and a turnaround from the loss of 1.09 trillion won the previous year. The annual sales rose 63.2 percent to 27.46 trillion won over the cited period.

By sector, the oil refining unit, which accounts for 76 percent of the entire revenue, booked 6.32 trillion won in sales.

The petrochemical sector posted 1.25 trillion won in sales, with those of lubricants logging 718.8 billion won.

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