Origin shares drive higher as oil and gas power ahead
ORIGIN Energy has revealed oil and gas production are surging as the group reaps the benefits of the ramp-up in operations at its Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas project.
The energy heavyweight says oil and gas production spiked 40 per cent in the year to June to 323 petajoules, also helped by better-than-expect- ed output from its conventional oil and gas business.
Revenue from oil and gas more than doubled to $2.2 billion, helped by the increased production and better prices.
Chief executive Frank Calabria said the result was a mark of the company’s strong operational performance.
“The substantial uplift in production and sales revenues for the year reflects strong operational performance across our upstream operations,” Mr Calabria said yesterday.
The APLNG project in Queensland, in which Origin holds a 37.5 per cent stake, has ramped up production over the past 18 months, and started producing from its second train last October.
Output from its Lattice Energy suite of conventional oil and gas assets also exceeded the group full-year forecast of 90 petajoules, helped by the start of production at the Halladale-Speculant wells off the southeast coast.
Origin is in the process of divesting Lattice Energy to streamline its business and reduce debt.
Production of 89.2 petajoules in the three months to June was up 12 per cent, while oil and gas sales revenue improved almost 20 per cent on the previous three months, to $673.4 million.
The energy producer and retailer shipped 33 export cargoes from Australia Pacific in the three-month period, and continued to be a major supplier of gas to the east coast, providing more than 20 per cent of total full-year demand.
Origin shares closed 0.8 per cent higher yesterday at $6.92.