PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices have resulted in ASX-listed Oil Search reporting a 16% increase in revenue for the three months to September, compared with the previous quarter.

Oil Search on Tuesday reported that total revenue for the quarter reached $309.5-million, compared with the $267.7-million reported in the June quarter. LNG and gas prices for the quarter under review increased by 23%.

Total production during the three months to September reached 7.63-million barrels of oil equivalent, which was up 6% from the June quarter production figures, while sales volumes were also up by 4% to 7.49-million barrels of oil equivalent.

“The third quarter of 2016 was another very strong period operationally for Oil Search,” said MD Peter Botten.

“Production of 7.63-million barrels of oil equivalent was 6% higher than in the second quarter, and only 1% lower than the all-time record level achieved in the first quarter of 2016.”

Botten pointed out that the Papua New Guinea (PNG) LNG project returned to full production during the September quarter, following a routine maintenance and brief unplanned shutdown in the second quarter.

Third-quarter production for Oil Search from the PNG LNG project reached 5.94-million barrels of oil equivalent, and the project produced at an annualised rate of some 8.1-million tonnes a year, up from the 7.4-million tonnes a year in the second quarter, and 17% higher than the nameplate capacity.

Botten said that this was achieved despite a small reduction in gas flow and LNG production in August, when there was a peaceful landowner protest at the Hides gas conditioning plant, related to landowners seeking dialogue with the government regarding progressing land title and benefits distribution issues.

Looking ahead, Oil Search has maintained its production and cost guidance for 2016, with the company expected to produce between 28-million and 30-million barrels of oil equivalent, at a cost of between $240-million and $275-million.