Oil Search Reports 49% Rise in First Half Profit

Oil Search on Tuesday reported net profit after tax for the first half of 2015 of $227.5 million, up 49 percent on year.

This is the highest half-year profit in the company’s history, despite materially weaker oil and gas prices.

Total revenue increased 69 percent to $863.8 million, driven by a more than three-fold increase in oil, condensate, gas and LNG sales, from 4.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) to 14.5 mmboe, reflecting a full period of production and sales from the PNG LNG project.

According to Oil Search, the PNG LNG project performed ahead of expectations during the first half, producing LNG at an annualised rate of approximately 7.1 MTPA, above the nameplate capacity of 6.9 MTPA. To date, 119 cargoes of LNG have been loaded since the project commenced production in the first half of 2014.

Unit production costs fell 43 percent, from $15.49 per boe to $8.90 per boe, reflecting a higher proportion of low cost PNG LNG project production.