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Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Limited (Brightoil) told shareholders and potential investors on Monday that it expects to post a rise in earnings for the last half of 2016 after its bunker division recorded an increase in sales volume and margins in the company's unaudited accounts.

In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE), Brightoil said: "Based on the preliminary review of the unaudited management accounts of the Group for the six months ended 31 December 2016, the Group is expected to record an increase in its profit as compared with that of the corresponding period of the previous year."

Highlighting the positive impact of bunker sales, oil and gas production and higher crude oil prices, Brightoil noted: "Based on the information currently available to the Board, the growth in international trading and bunkering business sales volume and margin, as well as increase in upstream oil and gas assets production and the recovery of oil price have contributed to the increase in the Group's profit as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year."

Brightoil explained that it is still in the process of finalizing the interim results for the six months ended 31st December 2016, which are expected to be published before the end of February.

Bunker Index reported in January that Brightoil was one of three companies to break into Singapore's list of top 20 bunker suppliers by volume in 2016; the company rose five places to 18th.