Seoul: South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) announced on Tuesday that it has returned to profitability in the third quarter, attributed to a 6.8 percent increase in utility bills for households that commenced in August. According to Yonhap News Agency, KOGAS reported a net profit of 155.2 billion won (approximately US$110.8 million) for the July-September period, a significant turnaround from a loss of 162.8 billion won in the same period last year. The company's operating profit also rose sharply by 90.9 percent, reaching 439.7 billion won, while sales increased by 2.8 percent to total 8.1 trillion won. The improvement in operating profit was partly due to the resolution of one-off costs that had previously impacted performance in 2023, as stated by the company. Despite the positive financial results, KOGAS highlighted that the current utility bills remain below production costs, with a growing amount of uncollected payments for gas purchases not yet recovered through billing. The financial str uggles faced by KOGAS have been exacerbated by its inability to adjust utility costs sufficiently to cope with global energy market fluctuations, which have been influenced by geopolitical events such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The price of KOGAS shares rose slightly, closing at 40,050 won on the main bourse on Tuesday, marking a 0.12 percent increase from the previous trading session. The third-quarter financial report was released during market hours.