The oil and gas industry is one of the bright spots in the business sector this year, as corporations continue to benefit from high energy prices.

Bazan Group (TASE: ORL), Israel’s largest refinery and petrochemicals company, is no exception in this regard as it announced a significant increase in net profit for the third quarter. The sharp rise was driven by a nearly doubling of refining revenue as a result of increased crude oil prices. The revenue during the third quarter increased by 70% to reach $3.04 billion. The group generated the net profit of $277 million, a staggering increase of 592% compared to the corresponding period last year when the company managed to earn $40M.

The gasoline refining sector accounted for the majority of Bazan’s revenue in the third quarter, with sales totalling $2.8B, an increase of 88% over the previous quarter. The increase was due to a rise in the volume of fuel distillates sold during the reported period, which was fuelled by 37% higher oil prices compared to the same period last year.

The company also saw a significant improvement on its adjusted refining margin as it almost doubled from $7.8 a year earlier to $15.3 last quarter. Though it has to be noted that it still remains way below Reuters’ quoted Mediterranean Ural Cracking Margin of $29.7.

The company’s polymers division delivered $222M in sales during the quarter, marking a 22% decrease from the previous period’s sales due to lower polymer pricing.
Bazan attributed the third-quarter drop in polymer prices to a decrease in worldwide demand. This is mostly due to fears about the world economy’s growth rate slowing as a result of global interest rate increases and inflationary pressures.