Beach Energy (BPT) has taken the opportunity of a record profit to do a bit of financial house cleaning, writing down the value of its assets by a total of $162.2 million.
The write-downs were snuck out late Friday and confirmed in yesterday’s profit announcement when the company revealed a record profit of $259.2 million for the year to June 30.
That was up 84% on the result for the 2012-13 year and was driven by higher prices and oil sales.
The company will pay a final dividend of 2c a share, making a total of 4c for the year (a one cent interim and one cent special dividend paid in March).
That’s effectively a doubling of the 2c a share paid in 2012-13.
Beach shares eased to close down 0.3% at $1.685.
BPT 1Y – Beach flags $162m writedown
The write-downs were the impairment of Egyptian exploration assets ($149 million) and the Paralana geothermal project ($13 million).
Beach said the net profit for the 2013-14 year after these significant items was $102 million, $52 million lower than in the 2013 year.
Sales revenue was up 51% from $698 million to a record $1.052 billion, due to record oil sales volumes, higher prices and a lower AUD/USD exchange rate.
Sales revenue from production was $246 million higher along with an increase in third party sales of $108 million.
Sales volumes of 10.8 mmboe for 2014 was a record, due to record oil production and higher third party volumes, offset by lower gas sales volumes as certain contracts expired during the period.
The average realised oil price increased to $A126/barrel (bbl) up $A16/bbl from 2013, due to both a higher US$ oil price and a fall in the average AUD/USD exchange rate during the year.
Beach produced 9.6 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), 54% of which was oil and 46% gas and gas liquids.
Beach became the largest onshore oil producer in Australia, with oil production up 39% on FY13, primarily due to exploration and development success and increased oil transport capacity out of the Western Flank.
Gas and gas liquids production was up 4% on the prior year, mainly due to reduced Moomba shutdowns.
A total of 122 wells were completed with an overall success rate of 85%. Of the total wells drilled, exploration wells comprised 26% with a success rate of 59%, and appraisal wells comprised 11% with a success rate of 69%.
