Gasum puts focus on growing Nordic gas market as profit drops

Gasum of Finland is turning its focus on expanding the Nordic gas market based on biogas, natural gas and LNG after selling its heat and natural gas retail business.

The company said on Tuesday it is selling its business to Auris Kaasunjakelu in the Auris gas distribution network area, expecting to close the transaction by mid-February.

“This transaction is part of the Gasum strategy and enables us to focus on providing an even better and more comprehensive service to our biogas, natural gas and LNG customers in industry, road and maritime transport and waste management,” according to Gasum’s CEO Johanna Lamminen.

The company also reported a net income for the period of €98.2 million ($104.8 million), down from €101 million in the previous year.

Speaking of the company’s results in 2016, during which Gasum recorded a revenue of €843 million ($899 million), down from €915 million in 2015, Lamminen said the company’s financial performance had a positive trend, even though the revenue was affected above all by the decrease in the sales prices of natural gas as well as LNG.

This affected the contribution from the LNG business unit that accounted for €162.4 million in 2016, compared to €202.3 million in 2015.

The report also notes that the LNG business unit kept developing during the year with the total amount of LNG delivered in 2016 reaching 384,990 tons or 5.8 TWh up 2.2 percent from 376,600 tons or 5.7 TWh in 2015.

1 EUR = 1.06694 USD

LNG World News Staff