Sydney-listed Oil Search on February 23 reported a net loss of US$320.7mn during the 12 months ending December 31, as a result of lower realised oil and gas prices. It made a profit of US$312.4mn in the previous year. 

The loss includes a post-tax impairment charge of US$260.2mn that had been recognised in the interim financial results. Core net profit after tax excluding impairments and other significant non-recurring items was US$22mn, down 93% year/year.  

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Oil Search’s average realised oil and condensate price was down 41% yr/yr while its average realised gas price dropped 32% yr/yr.  

In Papua New Guinea, the Papua LNG joint venture has been offered a second five-year extension of its petroleum retention licence (PRL 15), to progress the project to the final investment decision, Oil Search said.  

“This is a clear demonstration of the increasing alignment between the PNG Government and the Papua LNG joint venture,” the company said. “It marks a significant milestone for the project as the Papua LNG operator, Total, targets entering the front-end engineering and design (Feed) phase in 2022.” 

Total, Oil Search and partner ExxonMobil earlier this month signed a fiscal stability agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea for the Papua LNG project. The group had planned to develop Papua LNG and expand the existing PNG LNG plant in tandem. The expansion at PNG LNG is dependent on whether the P’nyang gas agreement is concluded, however.

Oil Search also said on February 22 that the Pikka joint venture it is involved in had approved Feed entry for its oil project located in Alaska.