A higher demand for refined petroleum products helped to pump a $46.3 million profit into the state-owned Barbados National Oil Company Limited (BNOCL) group during the fiscal
year ended March 31.
This was the performance before BNOCL and its main subsidiary Barbados National Terminal Company Limited (BNTCL) transitioned to Barbados National Energy Company Limited (BNECL) on April 1, with the National Petroleum Corporation to follow.
“The increase in profitability at the group level was primarily due to operational improvements in refined product sales as well as structural changes to the pricing framework,” BNOCL says in its 2025 annual report.
“During fiscal year 2025, the company generated $46 341 070 from a total revenue of $587 663 841. This is up from a fiscal year 2024 profit of $33 966 902 profit from a total revenue of $585 043 276.
“The company’s cash position also increased from fiscal year 2024 figure of $1 584 779 to fiscal year 2025
cash position of $7 468 635.”
Management said that the parent company BNOCL as an entity “recorded comprehensive income of $43.88 million for the year 2025 as compared to net comprehensive income of $29.72 million in 2024”.
“Barbados National Oilfield Services Limited recorded a loss of $3.19 million in 2025 as compared to a loss of $1.47 million in 2024. BNTCL recorded a profit of $5.55 million in 2025. This was 10.5 per cent more than the profit of $5.02 million recorded in 2024,” it stated
“The increase in profitability at the group level was primariliy due to operational improvements in refined product sales as well as structural changes to the pricing framework.
“Profitability at BNTCL was again negatively impacted by the increase in the cost of utilising the Holborn terminal and by a 16 per cent increase in general and administrative expenses.”
On the revenue side, the sale of refined petroleum products accounted for $515.1 million or 87.6 per cent of gross revenue for the current year.
“This represented a decrease of 0.9 per cent or $4.46 million from the previous year’s refined products revenue of $519.5 million,” BNOCL reported.
“The decrease in revenue from this segment of the business resulted primarily from the sale of product at significantly lower average prices which negated a general increase in volumes imported for the year under review.”
Revenue from gasoline and diesel “increased slightly from $327.1 million in 2024 to $330.3 million in the year under review. This represented an increase of one per cent or $3.17 million”.
“Revenue from the sale of natural gas increased from $28 million in 2024 to $32.4 million in the year under review.
The price of indigenous natural gas to the NPC was set on a sliding scale with a floor of $7.50 per cubic foot and ceiling of $11.15 per cubic foot while imported gas was again sold to the NPC at a rate calculated on a cost-plus margin basis.”
It was also reported that “the operating cost of the group decreased by 3.5 per cent from $532.1 million
in 2024 to $513.4 million in the current year”.
The major contributor was a decrease in the overall cost of refined product to $475.97 million in the current year compared with a cost of $500.1 million in 2024.
This represented a decrease of 4.8 per cent when compared to the previous year and was attributable primarily to generally lower costs per barrel for all refined products.
Barbados’ big appetite for imported refined petroleum products persisted last year, BNOCL’s annual report detailed.
“The demand for energy products continued, with increases in petroleum products of [aviation fuel], gasoline and diesel,” it said.
“Despite the continued electrification of the transport sector along with the increase in hybrid
and electric vehicles available to the public, anticipated declines in gasoline and diesel have not
been realised. For the period under review, there were approximately 69 tanker operations [at] Oistins, which discharged a total of 2 781 888 barrels of gasoline diesel and aviation [fuel].”
This was compared of 511 277 barrels of ultra-low sulphur diesel, 751 420 barrels of unleaded gasoline, and 1 519 191 barrels of aviation fuel.
“There was a four per cent increase in the importation of [gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel] through BNTCL compared to 2024-2024 figures of 2 681 755 barrels,” BNOCL said. “There were increases across all three products with ultra low sulphur diesel having the greatest increase at 10.8 per cent and gasoline and jet fuel contributed to this overall increase with increases in aviation fuel and unleaded gasoline of 1.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.”
As imported petroleum products increased, there was no major crude oil and natural gas production.
“Oil production increased by two per cent while gas production decreased by six per cent in fiscal year 2024-25 when compared to the previous fiscal year,” BNOCL said.
“The natural and mechanical decline of the aging field was overcome by several activities under the enhanced recovery and cementation contract with T. N. Ramnauth and Company Limited. Since the gas-oil ratio of the significant producers was relatively low, the gas production decreased despite the marginal oil increase.”
“Overall, 142 929 barrels of oil were produced here in 2024-2025 compared with 140 361 barrels of oil in 2023-2024. For natural gas 245 157 cubic feet of the product was produced last fiscal year versus 262 199 cubic feet in 2023-2024.”
The BNOCL also noted that “the increase in crude oil sales in fiscal year 2024-2025 of three per cent is commensurate with that of crude oil production as efforts continue to optimise production and minimise stock levels”.
“Gas sales increased by 11 per cent from 603 329 cubic feet in fiscal year 2023-2024 to 668 294 cubic feet in fiscal year 2024-2025. Increased gas sales is a reflection of increased demand from the NPC as it grows its customer base in fulfilment of Barbados’ National Energy Policy,” it stated.
“Since 2016, natural gas sales has been a mixture of gasified imported liquefied natural gas and gas produced by BNOCL’s wells, refered to as field gas.
“In fiscal year 2024-2025 field gas contributed 20 per cent of gas sales and LNG 80 per cent, while in fiscal year 2023-2024 the field gas and LNG contributions were 26 per cent and 74 per cent respectively.”
It added: “The exploration and production sector of the oil and natural gas field saw an increase in the total production by 25.5 per cent resulting in $32.2 million in revenue which contributed to the country’s foreign exchange needs.
“Natural gas sales also contributed to the company’s revenue stream and $32.45 million was generated, albeit from a combination of local and imported natural gas.”
With locally-produced natural gas in decline during the fiscal year ended March 31, BNOCL “imported 7 429 206 gallons of LNG to supplement domestic commercial and residential demand, as well as international ship bunkering”.
“This resulted in an increase of nine per cent over the quantity of product imported in the previous fiscal year,” the company said.
“Typically, the capacity of a container is 10 527 gallons. The USA based company New Fortress Energy – later Miami LNG supplied 47 per cent of the imported gas, while Crowley based in Puerto Rico supplied the remaining quantity.”
A heavy focus of BNECL will be achieving a more sustainable energy mix, including more renewable energy. This effort continued under the BNOCL group over the past year.
BNOCL reported: “With respect to renewable energy, BNOCL’s continued acceleration of the commercial impetus within the renewable energy space was significantly impacted by the lack of capacity on the national grid and restrictions implemented by the Barbados Light & Power Company.”
“PV equipment sales totalled $735 173 through the sale of mainly solar PV racking, solar modules and portable battery units to both installers and residential customers. “However, the acquisition of new residential and commercial RE customers was temporarily placed on hold due to the halted interconnection of RE systems by the BL&P.”
The interconnection of three of BNOCL’s ground mount solar PV systems was also completed during the period, but these systems “were connected at half capacity due to grid constraints, pending the installation of battery storage”.
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