Energean Sees Losses Widen in H1
Mediterranean-focused producer Energean sustained $77.3mn in pre-tax losses in the first half of the year, it said on September 10, versus $4.5mn in losses a year earlier.
The company's revenues plunged almost 95% to $2.1mn, while adjusted core earnings (Ebitdax) swung to negative $8.9mn from a $24mn gain a year earlier. Energean sold its oil for only $9.1/barrel, versus $58.3/b a year earlier.
Energean, which is developing several major gas fields off Israel, is looking to close the purchase of Edison E&P from its parent Edison in the fourth quarter.
"Following the completion of the deal, around 70% of our future production will be sold under long-term gas sales agreements that will largely insulate us against oil price volatility," the company said.
Taking this backdated transaction into account, Energean expects to produce between 44,500-51,500 barrels of oil equivalent/day this year, compared with 52,100 boe/d in the first half. Without Edison, it produced only 2,100 boe/d in January through June.
Energean is also awaiting the launch of its Karish gas project offshore Israel, but the start-up has been pushed back from the first half of 2021 to the second half. There have been coronavirus disruptions at the shipyard in Singapore where the project's 8bn m3/yr floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is under construction.
The company has issued force majeure notices to its gas customers in Israel because of the delay, it said, in order to avoid incurring penalties. It has contracts in place for 5.6bn m3/yr of gas supply in the country.
Energean's near-term focus is securing offtake for the FPSO's remaining 2.4bn m3 of annual capacity. The company "is assessing a number of opportunities in both the Israeli domestic market, as well as key export markets in order to meet this target," it said.