Oz Beach Has Record Output, Revenues

Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy has tightened its fiscal 2017-2018 (July-June) gas production guidance and saw production surge in Q1 this year, following its acquisition of the Lattice Energy business from Origin Energy, it said April 24.

It now expects 2017-2018 production in the range of 26-27mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), which compares to the previous forecast of 25.5-27.6mn boe, the company said. The guidance is on a pro forma basis which indicates 12 months of legacy production for 2017-2018 for both Beach and Lattice.

Beach completed the acquisition of Lattice Energy from Origin January 31 for a purchase price of A$1.585bn ($1.2bn). The Lattice Energy assets include a 67% interest in the Otway Gas Project, all of the Halladale, Speculant and Black Watch gas fields, and a 42.5% stake in the Bass Gas Project.

“Headlined by the financial close of the Lattice acquisition and the safe and seamless ownership transition, the transformation of Beach has delivered record production, sales volumes and sales revenue,” Beach CEO Matt Kay said.

The performance translated into the generation of A$133mn free cash and has seen net gearing reducing to 29% at the end of March, which compares to an original estimate of 35%, he said.

“Offshore Otway Basin achieved a 4% increase in gross average daily production despite unplanned downtime for maintenance and power outages associated with the bushfires in south west Victoria,” he said. The company’s total Q1 production quarter stood at 6.58mn boe, up from 2.51mn boe a year earlier and from 2.63mn boe in the previous quarter, Beach said. Beach holds interests in more than 450 exploration and production licences in Australia and New Zealand.