Aussie firms report sharp jump in topline as energy prices rebound
Australia's largest energy companies have reported a sharp jump in revenue during the July-September quarter owing to a significant rebound in global oil and gas prices. Woodside and Oil Search more than doubled their revenue during the quarter. Santos booked record revenue while Origin Energy’s revenue from its stake in Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) jumped 69% year/year.
Australia's biggest gas producer Woodside reported a 119% yr/yr jump in sales revenue thanks to higher realised oil, gas and condensate prices. The company’s revenue rose to $1.53bn from $699mn a year earlier.
Woodside's realised price for its products during the quarter was $59/boe, up from US$26/boe in the same quarter last year. LNG price was up 148% yr/yr while the domestic gas price was up 30.7% yr/yr. The average oil price almost doubled to $80/boe.
Meanwhile, the company has adjusted its estimate of reserves at Julimar and Brunello, two of the four fields which provide natural gas to the Wheatstone LNG project. After completing reservoir studies based on 4D seismic data, well performance and well drilling results, the company reduced its estimate of total proved plus probable reserves by 27%, to 168.4mn boe.
Australia’s second-biggest energy firm Santos’ revenue came in at $1.14bn during July-September as against $797mn in the same period of last year. Its average realised LNG price rose to $10.4/mn Btu from $4.27/mn Btu in the corresponding quarter. Its realised gas price was $4.98/gigajoule, up from $3.94/gigajoule in the same period of last year. The average realised oil price was $76.64/b against $45.9/b.
Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said that the $15bn merger with Oil Search is on track for completion by year-end. The merger was first announced in August and finalised last month. The combined entity will be among the world’s top 20 oil and gas companies and have assets across Australia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and North America.
Origin’s revenue from the APLNG rose to A$633.7mn ($477.87mn) during the quarter compared with A$373.9mn in the same period last year. APLNG’s realised average LNG price was $9.09/mn Btu, up from $5.81/mn Btu a year earlier. Its average domestic gas price was up 106% yr/yr.
APLNG, a joint venture comprising Origin, ConocoPhillips and China's Sinopec, is Australia’s largest producer of coalbed methane (CBM) and supplies gas to Queensland’s domestic gas market, while also processing CBM into LNG for exports. Origin last month signed an agreement with global energy investor, EIG, to sell a 10% stake in the project.
Sydney-listed but Papua New Guinea-focused Oil Search’s revenue came in at $408.8mn, compared with $189mn a year earlier, representing an increase of 116%. The average realised LNG and gas price was up 136% yr/yr while the average realised oil and condensate price was up 97% yr/yr.