Seoul: S-Oil Corp., South Korea's third-largest refiner by sales, on Monday reported its fourth-quarter net profit of 265 billion won (US$183 million), marking a turnaround from a loss of 131.7 billion won in the same period last year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the company's operating profit for the October-December period reached 424.5 billion won, representing an increase of 90.9 percent year-over-year. Despite this significant rise in operating profit, the company's revenue experienced a slight decline of 1.4 percent, totaling 8.79 trillion won.

The reported earnings were below market expectations, as analysts had anticipated a net profit of 278.1 billion won, based on a survey conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.