PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC), the energy investment arm of the Yuchengco Group, reported a 14 percent decline in first-quarter profit as the absence of oil revenues from its African operations outweighed growth in its local renewable energy portfolio.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, May 15, PERC said consolidated net income fell to ₱240.62 million in the three months through March from ₱280.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

Net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company followed a similar trajectory, slipping to ₱139.92 million from ₱143.46 million.

The earnings contraction was primarily driven by the company’s upstream oil business in Gabon, West Africa.

PetroEnergy recorded no oil revenues for the quarter, citing a lack of crude oil liftings allocated to consortium partners for the Etame oil operations. This seasonal or operational gap in Africa created a high hurdle for the company’s domestic power generation business to overcome.

Despite the bottom-line pressure, the company’s balance sheet continued to expand. Consolidated assets grew 7.53 percent to ₱25.61 billion, compared with ₱23.82 billion a year ago.

Renewable energy remained the dominant revenue driver for the group as electricity sales rose slightly, buoyed by the full commercial operation of the 13.2-megawatt Nabas Wind Power Project – Phase 2 and the initial generation from the 34-megawatt-peak Limbauan-2 Solar Power Project.

Revenue also benefited from improved tariff rates for the Nabas-1 wind and Tarlac-1 solar projects, alongside steady contributions from solar plants in Dagohoy and San Jose.

The gains in wind and solar were partially offset by technical headwinds. Scheduled preventive maintenance shutdowns at Maibarara Geothermal Inc.’s units in March reduced the available capacity of the group's geothermal assets during the quarter.