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ublicly listed gas refinery Surya Esa Perkasa is expecting a higher output from its latest factory expansion to help the company maintain its profitability amid low prices '€” a trend that has consumed the company'€™s first quarter net profits.

In the first quarter of this year, the company saw its bottom line slip by around 35 percent year-on-year (yoy) to US$2.66 million on the back of plunging selling prices.

Despite the slip, Surya Esa corporate secretary Kanishk Laroya told reporters on Monday that his company was upbeat it could maintain its revenue and net profits to at least at the same level as last year.

The company earned $39.93 million in revenue and $10.79 million in net profits in 2014.

Laroya said his company would rely on a higher volume to prevent falling prices from eating into the company'€™s sales, particularly as Surya Esa had concluded the expansion of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) facility in Palembang, South Sumatra, late last year.

The expansion is designed to boost Surya Esa'€™s LPG production by around 50 percent starting this year.

'€œOur strategy is simple, it is all about volume and prices,'€ he said, adding that the latest facility came with better technology and production efficiency.

The company produced 19,000 tons of LPG and 49,000 barrels of condensate during the first quarter of 2015, compared with 11,055 tons of LPG and 35,009 barrels of condensate in the same period of 2014.

However, Laroya said higher production in the first quarter did not lead to a higher top line in the company'€™s first-three-month result because the company'€™s LPG prices declined by 50 percent yoy.

It reflected a slump in global oil prices that saw its value decline by half in the past year due to an ample supply from producing countries.

The average selling price for the first quarter of 2015 was $420/metric ton, while it was $880/metric ton in the first quarter of 2014. The company saw its first quarter revenue slightly corrected by around 3 percent to $10.77 million during the first quarter, while its cost of revenue was up by around 70 percent to $5.97 million due to a higher output.

Now that oil prices had started to rebound, he said, there would be a better chance of the company reaching its target in upcoming quarters. Surya Esa'€™s current LPG price is hovering at around $460/metric tons.

Meanwhile, Laroya said Surya Esa had decided to postpone the construction of its ammonia plant, which would be the country'€™s biggest once it started commercial operations, from the first quarter of this year to later in the year, citing pricing problems that led the company to change contractors in building the facility.

The company, as previously reported, appointed Japan-based Toyo Engineering Corporation and local firm Inti Karya Persada Teknik as the contractors for the project.

Laroya said his company had decided to terminate cooperation with the contractors, which decided to increase engineering, procurement and construction costs by 15 percent and project costs by 20 percent, leading Surya Esa to postpone construction to around September.