Tanzanian Gas Lifts Pertamina's M&P
Higher Tanzanian gas production, plus a higher realised oil price on its Gabonese operations, boosted Maurel & Prom revenues in 1Q2018.
The former French independent producer, now majority owned by Indonesian state-owned Pertamina, said April 23 that its net sales increased by 15% to €104mn year on year.
That represented a rise in dollar terms of 33% to $128mn: oil sales at $115mn though continued to dwarf gas sales value at $9mn (up 78%); it also made $4mn from drilling operations for third parties. Its Tanzanian gas price remained flat year on year at $3.18/mn Btu while the oil price in Gabon rose by 26% to an average $66.3/b.
Production volumes net to M&P rose 78% year on year for Tanzanian gas to 37mn ft3/d, while for Gabonese oil they were 1% lower at 19,180 b/d – amounting to an overall 11% increase. All the company’s gas production is in Tanzania while all its oil is produced in Gabon.
Overall production in Tanzania operated by M&P averaged 77mn ft3/d, all at the Mnazi Bay field where its partners include Wentworth Resources and Tanzanian state TPDC. Indeed during March, Mnazi Bay field achieved a record production level of 84.8mn ft3/d after exceeding the monthly production threshold of 80mn ft3/d for the first time in February 2018. “This production increase seeks to address the gas demand growth in order to meet national requirements,” said M&P. Its partner Wentworth in January 2018 also noted an increase in demand, that was boosting Mnazi Bay gas sales.
(Banner photo shows Mtwara and Mnazi Bay - credit: Solo Oil)