Oil Search swings to loss

Oil Search of Papua New Guinea swung to a US$39.4 million loss in 2015 as it booked an impairment charge of almost $353 million related to assets in Kurdistan.

The company’s core profit in 2015 was $359.9 million, compared to $482.8 million in 2014 as q consequence of plunging prices with the average Brent price almost half of 2014 levels, Oil search said on Tuesday.

Production of 29.25 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) was 52% higher than in 2014 and an all-time record for Oil Search, the company said.

The increase was driven by a full year of “strong performance from the PNG LNG project and a solid contribution from the Oil Search-operated PNG fields“.  Oil Search holds a 29% stake in the ExxonMobil-operated US$19 billion PNG LNG project.

A 62% increase in hydrocarbon sales volumes was offset by significantly lower realised oil and gas prices, resulting in a 2% decline in revenue to $1.59 billion, Oil Search said.

LNG World News Staff