Oil Search records K550mil profit

OIL Search Ltd (OSL) has recorded a US$162 million (K550 mil) net profit after tax in the first half of this year, a 105 per cent increase from the same time last year, says managing director Peter Botten.
Botten announced yesterday that the strong results were due to the company not having disruptions compared to last year resulting in good productions from the PNG LNG (liquefied natural gas) project.
“Our net profit after tax is US$162 million which is up by approximately 100 per cent compared to the first half of last year with a dividend per share of five US cents,” he said.
“You can term the first half results as solid with a total production of 14.1 million barrels of oil equivalent which was 38 per cent higher than the first half of 2018 which was 10.24 million barrels.
“We recognise that the first half of last year was impacted by the tragic earthquake that took place in the Highlands in Feb 2018,” he said,
“We obviously had a relatively disruption free first half and that resulted in a solid production base of 38 per cent higher than last year.
“PNG LNG produced an annualised rate of 8.6 million tonnes per annum that was impacted a little by planned down time in the first half.
“We expect a strong second half for rented reasons with no planned down time during that period of time.
“Our total liquidity remains sufficient at US$1.43 billion (K4.85b) to support our growth opportunities in PNG and in Alaska.”
Botten said the total revenue from the first six months which ended on June 30 was US$777 million (K2.638bil) which was a 39 per cent change from last year which was US$556 million (K1.887bil).
The oil company also recorded a total operating cash flow cost of US$419 million compared to last year which was US$244 million (K760.6mil).