CNOOC Profits Nosedives, Eyes South China Sea
Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil and gas explorer, posted a 56 percent decline in profit for the first half of this year. Net income dropped to 14.73 billion yuan ($2.3 billion), or 0.33 yuan a share, from 33.59 billion yuan, or 0.75 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based explorer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange Wednesday. That exceeded the 13.9-billion yuan average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Despite profit fall, the company kept its dividend payout the same as the year-earlier level. Planned capital expenditure reduction by about 30 billion yuan this year and first-half savings of 12 billion yuan on an oil production tax helped offset lower cash inflows due to lower oil prices.
CNOOC Announces Operational Statistics
CNOOC Limited announced its key operational statistics for the first quarter of 2013. During the quarter, the Company achieved a total net production of 93.6 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), representing 17.3% increase year over year (YoY), primarily attributable to the production contribution from the acquisition of Nexen Inc ., the new oil and gas projects on stream, the resumption of Penglai 19-3 oil field and the overseas projects. For the first quarter, the Company made four new discoveries and six successful appraisal wells in offshore China. The appraisal confirmed that Penglai 15-2 was a mid to large sized crude oil discovery. In the perspective of overseas development, the Company successfully completed the acquisition of Nexen.
