PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas producer Beach Energy has reported a 7% increase in production and a 9% increase in sales volumes for the three months to September, compared with the previous quarter, driving revenues to A$514-million.
Production in the September quarter reached 7.76-million barrels of oil equivalent, up from the 7.23-million barrels in the June quarter, while sales volumes increased from 7.6-million to 8.26-million barrels of oil equivalent in the same period.
“Beach’s performance in the first quarter of 2019 has set the company up for a strong year,” said CEO Matt Kay.
“We’ve recorded a 7% increase in production on the previous quarter, sales volumes were up 9% and, for the first time, our quarterly revenue hit more than half-a-billion dollars.”
“Higher output during the period of stronger commodity prices helped our revenues to reach A$514-million, up 9% on the prior quarter. With quarterly free cash flow of A$152-million, our net debt has been reduced to A$486-million and net gearing was 20% at the end of the quarter, well ahead of the net gearing target of less than 25% by the end of the 2019 financial year announced at the time of the Lattice acquisition.”
Kay said that for the 2019 financial year, production was expected to be towards the upper end of the guidance range of between 25-million and 27-million barrels of oil equivalent, following the strong start to the year.
Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the full year is also expected to be towards the upper end of the guidance of between A$1.05-billion and A$1.15-billion, driven by the strong production outlook.