Banpu firmly focused on green energy as net profit soars in first half

Banpu's chief executive officer, Somruedee Chaimongkol, said that due to the trend of increasing global energy consumption, electric power generation must be more environmentally friendly.

Banpu will be “Greener & Smarter”, with renewable energy generation and technology solutions accounting for more than half of the company's earnings by 2025, Somruedee said.

The latest development was revealed during a press conference on the company's first-half earnings on Wednesday. The company’s operational results showed record strong cash flow and net profit for the first half of 2022, with total sales revenue of US$3.029 billion, a 97 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled $1.543 billion, a 165 per cent increase from the same period last year. Net profit rose to $682 million, up 634 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Somruedee said that the robust performance was driven by constantly growing energy demand and tight supply, coupled with the company’s continued expansion of its greener energy portfolio, such as a successful acquisition to expand natural gas production in the US and the collaboration with business partners to build a lithium-ion battery assembly plant to penetrate the electric vehicle market.

"In the year’s first half, we invested in natural gas and related midstream businesses in the United States. We also launched the Carbon Capture and Sequestration project at the Barnett Shale Gas asset in Texas, marking another important step towards improving sustainability in our production processes in line with ESG [environmental, social and governance] principles,” the Banpu CEO said.

Energy resource, energy generation and energy technology are key for Banpu group’s revenue.

The energy resources group, which includes mining and natural gas, performed well due to high global coal prices and rising gas demand. The energy generation group, which is involved in thermal power generation and renewable power generation, is expanding along with cost-controlling measures to manage volatile energy costs.

The energy technology group is now scaling up the portfolio with a focus on expanding product and service offerings to enhance the Banpu ecosystem. The major project is the collaboration with Durapower, a global leader in performance lithium battery storage solutions, and Cherdchai Motor Sales, the largest bus operator in Thailand, to set up lithium-ion battery assembly plant for e-Bus battery systems.

The partnership will capture the growing opportunity in EV markets across Asia-Pacific with a plan to expand its production capacity to 1 gigawatt per hour by 2026. Banpu has also expanded its customer base to Indonesia through its subsidiary in a solar rooftop project with total capacity of 7.27 megawatt peak.

Somruedee added that besides accelerating business growth through the Greener & Smarter strategy, Banpu is creating a new S-Curve by starting its investment portfolio into a US-based Healthcare Fund.

“We will continue to build a comprehensive energy ecosystem with our three main business groups to maintain our long-term strength while lessening the impact of external factors, such as market conditions, the global economy and the tension of international political situations, and keep us well-positioned to forge stable and sustainable growth,” Somruedee said.

Banpu Pcl is operating three core groups of businesses – energy resources, energy generation, and energy technology – in 10 countries: Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Singapore, Japan, the US and Vietnam.

As of June 30, Banpu’s total assets were worth $12.241 billion, an increase of $1.295 billion from December 31, 2021.