Oz Cooper’s Revenue Soars on Higher Production, Prices
Australian Cooper Energy hit the high end of its recently updated production guidance for fiscal 2017-2018 (July-June) and saw revenue soar, the company said July 16 in its quarterly report.
“Cooper Energy has closed out the year meeting upgraded production guidance and within schedule and budget for our major development, the offshore Sole Gas Project. The increased revenue and production for the quarter show the benefits of our well workover at Casino and the new Otway gas contract,” Cooper’s managing director David Maxwell said.
The company’s full fiscal year production was 1.49mn barrels of oil equivalent, up by 54% from the previous year. In the June quarter it produced 0.35mn boe, which was down 10% year on year, it said.
Cooper’s sales revenue totalled $19.6mn in the June quarter, up 51% year on year, which took the full year revenue to $66.7mn, up 71% from the previous year, it said.
“The increase in quarterly revenue compared with the previous quarter is attributable to higher gas production and higher prices for gas and oil,” the company said.
The company’s Sole gas project’s first production well, Sole-3, was successfully tested earlier in the month with tests showing that it can produce above the maximum plant throughput rate of 68 PJ per day.
Cooper, which holds 100% equity in the Sole gas field, is undertaking the A$355mn ($264mn) offshore development, while APA Group is conducting a A$250mn upgrade to the onshore Orbost Gas Processing Plant to enable processing of gas from sole.
The field is being developed to supply about 24 PJ of gas per year from mid-2019, with about 75% of the field’s reserves contracted to a range of utility and industrial customers including AGL Energy, EnergyAustralia, Alinta Energy and O-I.
“The project continues to progress within our budget and schedule, inclusive of the completion of Sole-3 after year end. Sole-4 drilling has resumed and is progressing,” Maxwell said. Sole-4 is expected to be completed early August.
Cooper said in a presentation July 16 that it expects its production in fiscal 2018-2019, excluding Sole, to be 1.4mn boe.
The company has previously said it aims to take its production to 6mn boe by 2020 – a six-fold increase from where it was at in fiscal 2016-2017.