Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas producer Origin Energy on Monday reported a 12% quarter-on-quarter production increase and said its full-year production surged by 40%.
During the fourth quarter, ended June, Origin produced 89.2 PJe, compared with the 79.7 PJe produced in the third quarter, while full-year production increased from 231.5 PJe to 323.2 PJe.
The higher production was driven by the ramp-up of operations at the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (APLNG) project, with its second train starting operations in October last year, as well as the Halladale/Speculant wells, in the Otway basin, coming on line in August last year.
As a result of the increased production, sales for the June quarter increased by 15%, to 92.4 PJe, while full-year sales were up 46% to 333.5 PJe. Revenue for the quarter increased by 20%, to A$673.4-million, while full-year revenue more than doubled from A$1.07-billion to A$2.2-billion.
“The substantial uplift in production and sales revenues for the year reflect strong operational performance across our upstream operations,” said Origin CEO Frank Calabria.
“APLNG continues to hit milestones and has now concluded the 90-day operational phase of the two train project finance lenders’ test. This represents a significant step in releasing the remaining $3.4-billion of shareholder guarantees relating to APLNG’s $8.5-billion project finance facility, which is now expected to occur in the first quarter of 2018.”
APLNG shipped 33 cargoes during the June quarter.