JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Australian gas producer Cooper Energy has grown its net profit, operating cash flow, production and reserves by 200% in the first half of the 2018 financial year, as the company realised gains from the delivery of its three-year gas strategy.
The ASX-listed exploration and production company recorded net profit after tax of $19.8-million for the six months ended December 31, 2017, compared with the loss of $8.2-million recorded in the previous corresponding period.
The profit result included significant items of $17.6-million, the major item of which was gained on the sale of the Orbost gas processing facility.
Profit before tax increased from a loss of $5.3-million to a profit of $21.3-million.
Excluding these items, underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $13-million for the six months to December increased by 433% from the previous corresponding period loss of $3.9-million.
The company recorded an underlying profit of $2.2-million compared with the underlying loss of $3.5-million in the 2017 first half.
Cash generation increased substantially, with net cash from operating activities of $10-million for the period compared with the outflow of $6.1-million in the previous first half.
Cash generation from the Otway basin gas production, acquired in January last year, and higher oil revenue, were responsible for the growth in cash flow after petroleum resource rent tax payments of $4.8-million.
Cooper Energy MD David Maxwell said the company's results for the first half featured "a combination of financial growth and gains arising from our gas strategy and a long list of milestones achieved".
"The gain on sale of the Orbost gas processing facility, while not included within underlying profit, is attributable to the gas strategy we have been executing since 2012 and the value this has created in what was the nonoperational Patricia Baleen gas plant.
"We were delighted to reach agreement with APA to acquire the plant, which we expect will continue to grow in significance and economic value through the upgrade work APA is conducting for the Sole gas project and through processing gas from other Gippsland basin gasfields such as Manta," he said.
Maxwell added that this was the first instalment of the three-year growth profile Cooper Energy expected from the start of new gas contracts and increase in production from the Otway basin and as it delivered the Sole gas project.
The company affirmed its production guidance for the current financial year of 1.4-million barrels of oil equivalent, which compares to one-million barrels of oil equivalent in the preceding 12 months. Production for the first half of 0.81-million barrels of oil equivalent was 406% above the 2017 first half, with the increase owed to the addition of Otway basin gas production from January 1 and a 6% lift in Cooper basin oil production.