Major energy firms managed to reap profits in this year's first quarter, despite a global economic slowdown and geopolitical conflicts.
Despite different approaches to earning revenue, energy conglomerate Bangchak Corporation Plc (BCP) and Electricity Generating Plc (Egco), a subsidiary of state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, announced their first quarter results, with BCP posting a net profit of 2.11 billion baht and Egco seeing its net profit soar to over 3.5 billion baht.
BCP's acquisition of Esso Thailand played a key role in driving up its revenue, while Egco's divestments of a gas-fired power plant in the US and a wind farm in Australia were behind its jump in profits.
BCP took over Esso Thailand in 2023, which was later renamed Bangchak Sriracha (BSRC).
"Despite the continued weakness in crude oil prices due to the global economic slowdown, Bangchak has maintained healthy margins, particularly in the oil refinery and oil trading business that made effective management of synergies with BSRC," said Chaiwat Kovavisarach, group chief executive and president of BCP.
In the first quarter, the company added more than 100 new filling stations to its profile and launched value-added products -- premium diesel and premium 97, or gasohol with an octane rating of 97 -- to attract customers.
In the non-oil business, BCP aims to increase the number of its Inthanin Coffee cafes to 1,400 by the end of this year.
In this year's first quarter, net profit doubled from the fourth quarter of 2024 to 2.11 billion baht, though it decreased by 13% year-on-year from the first quarter of 2024.
Egco posted net profit of more than 3.5 billion baht during the first three months of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 115%, due mainly to its disinvestment of certain assets.
In January this year, the company announced it had withdrawn all investment in a gas-fired power plant owned by US-based Risec Holdings LLC, in order to seek new business opportunities in other investment projects.
In February, Egco decided to sell its entire stake in Boco Rock Wind Farm Pty in Australia under a plan to restructure its investment portfolio.
Jiraporn Sirikum, president of Egco Group, attributed the company's strong performance to the asset recycling strategy.
During the first quarter, its Yunlin Offshore Wind Farm in Taiwan also started supplying power to the grid from its 80 wind turbine generators, with a total capacity of 640 megawatts.
Yunlin is one of Taiwan's largest offshore wind farms, powering over 600,000 homes in the country annually.