PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas producer Woodside has reported an interim net profit after tax of A$541-million for the six months to June, with operating cash flows for the period up by 25% on the first half of 2017.

Woodside said on Wednesday that the increased operating cash flows was driven by higher production and higher sales revenue.

“We are executing our strategy, preparing to enter a growth and construction phase for our significant Western Australian gas developments and progressing our international opportunities,” said CEO Peter Coleman.

“During the first half we delivered positive free cash flow, while acquiring additional equity in the Scarborough gas resource and investing to deliver the near-term growth which will contribute to targeted production of around 100-million barrels of oil equivalent in 2020.”

Underlying net profit after tax for the interim period was reported at A$566-million, while sales revenue was up 27% to A$2.25-billion and operating cash flows were up by 25% to A$1.5-billion.

Production during the first six months of the year was up 5% to 44.3-million barrels of oil equivalent, with Woodside increasing the full-year production guidance from between 85-million and 90-million barrels of oil equivalent, to between 87-million and 91-million barrels of oil equivalent.

“Our base business has performed strongly with Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) exceeding the 99% reliability. Wheatstone LNG train 1 has achieved above nameplate production rates and train 2 is ramping up as planned,” said Coleman.

“These results underpin an increase in the 2018 annual production guidance,” he added.

Meanwhile, Woodside reported that the Greater Western Flank 2 and Greater Enfield projects have progressed towards anticipated start-ups early in and in mid-2019 respectively, while the company has received tender responses in Senegal supporting the SNE field development Phase 1.

The aim was to enter the development’s front-end engineering and design phase in the second half of this year.

In the full 2018, Woodside is expected to spend between A$2-billion and A$2.05-billion, including on the acquisition of an increased interest in Scarborough in the first half of the year.