He said PTT's unaudited revenue in 2006 stood at Bt120 billion.

In the first nine months of last year, PTT showed Bt976 billion in revenue and Bt79.9 billion in net profit.

Prasert attributed the higher revenues to the increasing demand for natural gas as well as a substantially higher crude oil price swinging between $50 and $60 per barrel.

PTT's gas-separation plants and refineries have run at their full capacity to benefit from the favourable market conditions.

He said refining margins should also rise significantly in the next two years until new refineries in several countries - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, India, China and Oman - commence operations.

"But net profits depend on several factors, including the actual refining margin, the price of petrochemicals and natural petroleum gas, as well as the listing of Star Petroleum Refinery and the merger of Rayong Refinery and Aromatics (Thailand)," said Prasert.

If Rayong Refinery and Aromatics are merged through an acquisition, PTT will be able to book capital gains as profits, he added.

PTT has stakes in 39 companies in three main industries: gas exploration and production; retail and wholesale oil; and petrochemicals and refining.

Star Petroleum Refinery is a joint venture between PTT and Chevron.

Prasert was confident that the slow-down in the domestic economy would not hurt PTT's revenue, as the company's performance relied mainly on profits from refineries, gas separation plants and petrochemical prices as well as foreign exchange and global oil and gas prices.

He also said he did not expect retail oil prices to change within the next few days, while global gasoline prices tended to climb against a possible drop in global diesel prices.

This year, PTT plans to issue US dollar-denominated bonds worth tens of billions of baht to retire existing debts and expand investment. Under the five-year investment plan, PTT and subsidiaries intend to borrow Bt100 billion.