Oz Central Reports Maiden H1 Profit

Australia’s Central Petroleum February 25 reported a maiden net profit after tax of A$3.2mn (US$2.1mn) for the six months to December 31 (H1 2020) owing to the strong performance of its gas and oil fields in the Northern Territory. The company reported a loss of A$19mn in H1 2019.

“Reporting a maiden profit is a significant milestone for our company, and it is even more remarkable considering that this time 5 years ago we had virtually no production, no certified reserves, and no access to the east coast gas market,” Central’s CEO Leon Devaney said.

The company’s gas sales volumes increased 135% yr/yr to 6,863 terajoules, reflecting the start of gas sales through the Northern Gas Pipeline in January 2019. Revenue during H1 was A$35.7mn, an increase of 78.4% over the same period of the previous year.

Central said work on the exploration programme for the 12 months to December 31, 2020 (CY 2020) progressed during the period, finalising well designs and progressing the approvals processes required for exploration in the Northern Territory. The programme is estimated to have a total cost of about A$50mn and target mean prospective resources of up to 505 petajoules of gas (205 PJ risked mean) and 29mn barrels of oil (9.5mn barrels risked mean).

The company said it plans to fully fund the exploration programme through a formal farm-out process which is now underway.