Abu Dhabi’s energy company Taqa has posted AED 11.98 billion ($3.25 billion) in oil and gas revenues for 2011, as the company contuse to pursue an aggressive North Sea drilling program despite extra taxes taking a chunk out of profits.
The company booked a final profit after minority interests and taxes of AED 744 million ($202 million), down 27% from AED 1,019 million ($277 million) in 2010.Â
Total Oil & Gas revenues (including gas storage and other income) increased from AED 9.2 billion ($2.5 billion) in 2010. This 30% increase versus the same period last year, was driven by stronger crude oil prices and higher production in the UK North Sea, offset by weaker North American gas prices.
The oil and gas side of the company contributed 61% of total revenues, compared with 57% in 2010.
Production in the North Sea increased to 42.9 millions of barrels per day from 37.3 million bpd in 2010. Production in North America was broadly flat, and fell back in the Netherlands from 8.7 million bpd to 8.1 million bpd.
“Despite a strong operational performance, the impact of both the impairment in North America and increased taxes in the UK North Sea can be seen in our net financial result, said TAQA CFO Stephen Kersley.
The company has also made significant inroads in dealing with its debt pile, reducing the ration of net debt to EBITDA from 6.6 at year end 2010 to 5.
TAQA CEOÂ Carl Sheldon said in a conference call that capital expenditure for 2011 was $1.9 billion, and the estimated spend for 2012 is $2.2 billion, under the company’s medium-term investment plan.
Commenting on the results, Sheldon said:
“In 2011, we had a strong operational performance across our business, successfully growing both our Power & Water and Oil & Gas segments.“
“In Oil & Gas, we recovered from a difficult drilling season in Canada to maintain production levels. While weak North American gas prices have affected our performance, we are focusing our investment on liquid rich assets and monetising non-core acreage to mitigate this. In the UK North Sea, we grew production by 15% and added attractive acreage to our footprint, which, in line with our strategy, lies adjacent to our existing assets for cost effective development.
“Safety remains a core focus for TAQA and I am pleased that our recordable injury rate fell by 11% during the year and that our expansion project in Morocco recorded over 1 million man-hours without a single lost-time incident.
