China: Fortune Oil Revenues Up

Fortune Oil said its revenues including share of jointly controlled entities increased by 12.9 per cent to £338.8 million in fist half of 2012 (H1 2011: £300.1 million).

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Group profit from operations, excluding gains on disposal, increased by 20.3 per cent to £14.3 million (H1 2011: £11.8 million).
• Earnings per share was 0.55p (H1 2011:0.57p). Earnings per share, excluding gains on disposal, increased 27.5 per cent to 0.31p (H1 2011: 0.24p).
• Net assets further increased to £200.3 million as at 30 June 2012 (31 December 2011: £196.5 million).
• Group net borrowings of £63.3 million as at 30 June 2012 (31 December 2011: £5.7 million).
• The Annual General Meeting on 19 June 2012 approved a dividend payment of 0.18p per share for 2011 which was paid on 27 June 2012.

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• A 187.1 per cent increase in new customer connections to 31,031 (H1 2011: 10,810 new customers connected).
• Total field production from the Fortune Liulin Gas (FLG) wells now exceeds 27,000 cubic metres per day with the most successful well to date (H3) currently producing over 11,000 cubic metres per day, a rate which exceeds all previous wells drilled by FLG and is in line with our projections.
• Bluesky maintained its strong performance with a 15.7 per cent increase in sales volumes to 1.4 million tonnes (H1 2011: 1.2 million tonnes), driven by the continued increase in domestic air travel demand.
• Maoming Single Point Mooring (SPM) revenue increased 11.8 per cent to £8.9 million (H1 2011: £8.0 million) as throughput volumes increased by 7.3 per cent to 5.5 million tonnes (H1 2011: 5.2 million tonnes) with net profit increasing 34.9 per cent to £2.6 million (H1 2011 : £2.0 million).
• West Zhuhai Products Terminal throughput volume was down by 10.7 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes (H1 2011 1.3 million tonnes) and profit contribution to the Group decreased by 7.2 per cent due to decreased utilisation of the terminal by Petrochina.

Mr Qian Benyuan, Chairman of Fortune Oil, commented:

“I am delighted to report that Fortune Oil has continued to make excellent progress in the first half of 2012 building on the record performance achieved in 2011. Our natural gas business is making good progress and is on track to become the growth engine of the Company.

“The combination of our portfolio of assets, strong local relationships and geographical footprint in China, the world’s largest energy consumer, will enable Fortune Oil to continue to build on this track record in the second half of the year, increasing our market share in China, and delivering shareholder value.”

[mappress]
LNG World News Staff, August 23, 2012