PTTEP net profit skyrockets 123% in q3

Tevin Vongvanich, president and chief executive officer, said revenue of PTTEP and its subsidiaries rose 9 per cent to Bt57.08 billion from Bt52.16 billion in the second quarter due to sales volume increasing to 292,228 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 263,441boed in the second quarter.

The increase was the result of Greater Bongkot South’s production start-up. Sales volume of natural gas and condensate from Greater Bongkot North also rose, as there was no production shutdown.

Both fields are in the Gulf of Thailand.

Crude-oil sales volume increased from the Vietnam 16-1 project.

With the strong third quarter, net profit for the first nine months jumped 43 per cent year on year to Bt43.54 billion.

Nine-month earnings were boosted by both better prices and bigger volumes.

Its average petroleum price improved to US$64.30 per barrel of oil equivalent, in line with higher world market prices, from $53.68 in the first nine months of last year.

Its petroleum sales volume increased to 269,776boed from 269,831boed in the first three quarters of last year.

As of September 30, PTTEP and its subsidiaries showed total assets of Bt532.06 billion, up from Bt447.84 billion at the end of last year.

PTTEP’s performance can be explained by its main projects.

The PTTEP Australasia project has found natural gas, while the drilling of appraisal well Maple-2 in the Cash Maple field has continued since July.

Also in Australia, the Montara project has received operational-safety approval and production is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

Closer to home, the Greater Bongkot South field began producing natural gas at the level specified in the daily contractual quantity in June.

This production rate will increase both Bongkot North and Bongkot South production capacity to about 900 million standard cubic feet |per day.

In Canada, average bitumen production for the Leismer area from the KKD oil sands project in the third quarter was about 16,300 barrels per day.

In Oman, the crude-oil production capacity of the Oman 44 project has more than tripled and is expected to reach 5,000bpd.

PTTEP Africa Investment has fulfilled all conditions to acquire Cove shares and request for Cove to apply to the London Stock Exchange for the cancellation of trading in its shares on the Alternative Investment Market on August 17.

PTTEP’s board unanimously approved the issuance of up to |650 million common shares via a preferential public offering on September 27.

The new shares will be offered and allocated to all eligible existing shareholders whose names appear in the share register book as of November 12.

The last day on which investors may purchase PTTEP’s common shares on the exchange and still be entitled to subscribe for new common shares is November 7.

The capital increase and the proposed offering are subject to approval by the company’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting scheduled for Monday at the Bangkok Convention Centre in CentralPlaza Ladprao.

The final offering price will be the same to all subscribers and will be determined via a book-building method to help achieve a market-driven offering price.

PTT, as the majority shareholder of PTTEP, will not participate in the book-building.