PTTEP returns to profit last year

PTTEP says this recovery was achieved through professionalism across disciplines, from operations and finance to cost and efficiency management. 
The company’s continued efforts to reset its cost base as a way to cope with the ongoing situation around price volatility were pursued without any compromise to safety standards and its responsibility to the environment and society, it said. 
As at the end of 2016, the company had cash on hand of $4 billion, ready to fund investment in new business opportunities. 
It has proposed a dividend payment of Bt3.25 per share for the 2016 operations. 
PTTEP president and chief executive officer Somporn Vongvuthipornchai said the company and its subsidiaries reported unaudited consolidated net profit in 2016 of $372 million, turning around from a net loss of $854 million in the previous year. 
In 2015, the company recorded impairment loss on assets of $1.385 billion primarily as a result of the oil-price slump, while this last year there is was an impairment charge of $47 million following revisions to production plans to reflect lower resource potential of the selected assets. 
PTTEP’s sales revenue in 2016 totalled $4.339 billion, a decrease from $5.614 billion in 2015 primarily caused by a lower average selling price, which fell to $35.91 per barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) from $45.29 per BOE in the previous year. 
The company’s board of directors has proposed payment of a dividend for the 2016 operation at Bt3.25 per share. The company paid an interim dividend for the first six months’ operating results at Bt0.75 per share, while the remaining dividend will be paid at Bt2.50 per share. 
The closing date of registration for the right to receive the dividend is February 10, 2017, followed by a dividend payment on April 10. 
Somporn said that this year the company would continue to focus on maintaining the production level especially from its core operations in Thailand, with average sales volume for the year targeted at 312,000 BOE per day and unit cost maintained in the range of $30-$31 per BOE. 
PTTEP expects crude-oil prices in the first half of 2017 to be in the range of $50-$60 per barrel, supported by the agreement on production cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-Opec countries. 
Strategy to enhance its reserves and grow its production will be driven by sanctioning pre-development projects including the Ubon field under Contract 4, the Mozambique Rovuma Offshore Area 1 Project and the Algeria Hassi Bir Rekaiz Project. PTTEP will also proceed with its exploration projects and mergers and acquisitions in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, he said. 
He also commented on the energy outlook. 
“Although some may speculate a long-term decline in fossil-fuel demand, it will remain a major source of global energy supply, with natural gas, as a clean and transitional energy to a lower carbon future, playing an increasingly important role. 
“Considering PTTEP’s natural-gas portfolio accounting for more than 60 per cent of our production and our current strategy to expand jointly with PTT in the LNG [liquefied natural gas] business, I am confident that our business direction corresponds well with global energy trends and Thailand’s energy-supply plan.”