Japan's Inpex returns to profit in Jan-Sep

Japanese energy company Inpex on November 5 said its net income during the January-September period was 137.7bn yen ($1.2bn) compared with 125.4bn yen of net loss in the same period last year. The turnaround was mainly due to higher realised oil and gas prices.

The average sales price of overseas crude oil increased by 66.9% year/year to $65.59/barrel. The average sales price of overseas natural gas was up 23%yr/yr while the domestic gas price was up 14.4% yr/yr. Net sales for the nine months of the year increased 43.3% yr/yr to 849.2bn yen.

Inpex has revised the financial forecasts for the year ending December 31 mainly due to higher crude oil price assumptions. It expects a net income of 185bn yen for the year compared with the previous guidance of 170bn yen. The company expects the full-year average oil price to be $69.7/b, up from the previous forecast of $65.1/b.