BG, Britain’s third-biggest oil and gas producer, announced a 9 per cent slump in profits, driven by sharply lower crude prices.
Even so, the performance of the international arm of the old British Gas group easily outstripped its rivals Shell and BP, which this week announced far steeper falls. The result was also a much better than that of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, which yesterday announced a 58 per cent fall in profits over the same period.
BG said that pretax profits for the three months to March 31 were £1.27 billion, down from £1.4 billion a year earlier. The average price of each barrel of oil sold by BG during the period was $43.86, compared with $98.49 in the same quarter a year earlier.
Frank Chapman, chief executive, said that a 38 per cent slide in profits from BG’s exploration and production division had been partly offset by surging earnings from its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business.
Profits from LNG, which BG sells in growing volumes to customers in the US, Europe and Asia, rose 46 per cent during the quarter to £578 million. BG also enjoyed strong growth in its transmission and distribution business, which includes its ComGas subsidiary, Brazil’s largest gas distribution company.
Mr Chapman said: “The strength of our integrated gas business is reflected in the distinctive resilience of our profits in this challenging economic environment. We have continued to make strong progress in key growth areas of our business.”
One oil and gas analyst said: “These are very strong numbers from a period when everyone thought the world was going to end.”
BG said that its total level of production had been hit by the depletion of Atlantic and Cromarty – two North Sea gasfields – but said average output would remain at about 680,000 barrels per day this year because new projects were due to come on stream, including the first oil from Tupi, a prolific oil well offshore Brazil. ExxonMobil reported a 58 per cent fall in quarterly profits to $4.55 billion (£3 billion). The result was down sharply from the $10.89 billion reported in the same quarter a year earlier.
business.timesonline.co.uk
