DUBAI:Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas reported a 31.5 per cent drop in first half profit on Wednesday as lower hydrocarbon prices and declining output dragged down sales.
Dana Gas made $13 million (Dh48 million) in the first six months to June 30, down from $19 million in the same period a year ago, it said in an emailed statement.
Sales declined 22.9 per cent to $178 million as a “direct result of a further decrease in oil prices,” chief executive Patrick Allan-Ward said on a conference call.
In the second quarter, profit was flat at $7 million and revenue fell 17.2 per cent to $96 million.
Dana Gas, which produces natural gas in Egypt, Iraq and Sharjah, sold condensate at an average of $32 a barrel in the first half, down 41.8 per cent from a year ago, it told Gulf News in an email.
The average barrel of oil equivalent for liquid petroleum gas half-year price declined 30.5 per cent to $41, it said. Production fell 5.3 per cent in the first half, according to Gulf News calculations, and capital expenditure declined 31 per cent to $80 million, the company said.
Dana Gas said it received $49 million in payments from the Egyptian government in the first half and that its total trade group receivables in Egypt were $230 million as of June 30.
In February, Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Esmail said the government might no longer be able to reach its target of repaying all foreign oil and gas companies by the end of 2016.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, Dana Gas said it received $42 million in the first half and total receivables from the Kurdistan Regional Government were $726 million at the end of the period. The London Court of Arbitration is to hear remaining contractual issues and damages clams related to Kurdistan starting with a two-week hearing on September 5, Dana Gas said. A second and final hearing is likely to take place in the fourth quarter of 2016 or first quarter of 2017, it said.
Dana Gas shares were the most active by trading volume on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on Wednesday and closed unchanged at 56 fils.
In the UAE, Dana Gas said it collected $8 million and its receivables were $2 million as of June 30.
Dana Gas said Thursday that the English High Court on July 18 dismissed all appeals from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) against a 2014 arbitration that ruled in favour of its partner Crescent Petroleum.
On October 28, Crescent Petroleum, Dana Gas’ largest private shareholder, will seek loss of income damages from NIOC at a hearing The Hague, according to Dana Gas.
The 2014 arbitration ruled that a 25-year contract for NIOC to supply gas to Crescent National Gas Corporations, co-owned by Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, from 2005 was valid and binding, Dana Gas said in August 2014. NIOC has not supplied any gas.
Allan-Ward suggested Thursday that Dana Gas is unlikely to do business in Iran “until this arbitration is resolved and until trust is re-established.”
