By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Oil marketing giant, Oando Plc said on Wednesday its profit after tax (PAT) grew 76 percent to N10.7 billion from N6.1 billion recorded same period of last year, Oando said in its unaudited results for the nine months period ended 30 September, 2014.
Similarly, the third quarter (Q3) filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) shows that profit before tax (PBT) of the company increased marginally four percent (4%) to N10.2 billion from N9.8 billion reported in the corresponding period of 2013.
Turnover of Nigeria’s leading indigenous energy group declined 12 percent to N338.1 billion from N386.3 billion reported in the nine months period of 2013.
While gross profit increased by 70 percent in the third quarter to N79.6 billion compared to N46.7 billion recorded in 2013.
“We are pleased to announce our performance over the past nine months of the year 2014. The group is making solid progress in achieving a more robust financial performance despite the current industry trend and 30 percent decline in global crude prices year to date,’’ Wale Tinubu, group chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Tinubu affirmed that the conservative nature of the oil marketing firm ensures that they apply risk mitigating processes, by implementing hedging tools in the upstream on our future crude production, ~$100/barrel for three (3) years.
‘’We also fixed our gas prices through long term contracts with our customers in the midstream sector and have taken advantage of the lower prices in landing our refined imported products, resulting in improved pricing efficiencies,’’ he said.
According to him, as the company wraps up 2014, they look forward to a full quarter’s production contribution from its newly acquired Nigerian Agip Oil Company Joint Venture (NAOC JV) assets, which have steadily increased its current output above 50kboepd, as well as achieving diversity in earnings via Oando’s increased upstream contribution.
‘’In the Upstream exploration and production business, we have seen notable progress as production grew by 272 percent to a total of 4.1 million boe in the nine months ended September 2014. The increase was primarily due to the newly acquired working interest in OML 60 – 63 which contributed 2.9 million boe from July 30th to September 30th, 2014,’’ he added.
Tinubu further affirmed that total production from OML 125 during the first nine months of 2014 increased by 11 percent in comparison to the prior year.
He says the increase was largely driven by increased production efficiency from producing wells and recommencement of production in the Abo 10 well in August rather than the planned September date. ‘’On OML 56 we have successfully completed the fiber optic cable laying and pipeline construction milestones associated with the Umugini pipeline project; the projected delivery date remains the fourth quarter of 2014,’’ the Oando chief added.
Tinubu disclosed that in the midstream, Oando’s Gas & Power business has achieved actual volume sales (YTD Sept 2014) of 15.76mmscf which is in line with our year end objectives.
‘’As we wrap up 2014, we reaffirm our commitment to driving our business to greater heights and re-commit ourselves to deliver on our promised objectives. We look forward to ending the year with groundbreaking outcomes and superior shareholder value.
“These results are an outcome of its landmark $1.65bn acquisition of ConocoPhillips entire Nigerian business; its newly acquired working interest in OML 60 – 63 contributed 2.9 million boe from July 30th to September 30th, 2014,” the Nigeria’s energy group chief said.
At the close of business on the Nigerian bourse on Wednesday, share price of the company declined 5.17 percent as it lost N1.19.
