(Trinidad Express) Spain’s Repsol energy company has said its fourth quarter profits fell 29 per cent largely due to reduced production because of the Libya war and the impact of maintenance work at its Trinidad operations.
Upstream production was down by 14.4 per cent mainly due to Libya and maintenance turnarounds in Trinidad and Tobago, Repsol said in a statement on Wednesday.
Net profit adjusted for the current cost of supply—a key earnings yardstick for oil companies which strips out one-time items and changes in the price of oil— was 355 million euro (US$478 million) for the October-December period compared with 499 million euro the year before.
Repsol YPF SA resumed operations in Libya in October after suspending production of a near capacity 350,000 barrels a day when the Libyan revolt started in mid-February. The suspension diminished income by 220 million euro (US$296 million) in the quarter, compared to the previous year, the company said.
Repsol said production in the north African country is currently at around 300,000 barrels a day.
Adjusted net profit for the year was 1.9 billion euro (US$2.56 billion) compared to 2.03 billion euro in 2010. The company also said strikes at its Argentina operations also dented earnings.
The company said its fourth-quarter refining margin indicator in Spain plunged some 72 per cent to 0.8 euro a barrel compared to the same period in 2010.
When not adjusting for oil price changes and one-time items, fourth quarter net profit fell to 292 million euro from 2.9 billion euro a year earlier, when earnings were boosted by a big accounting gain on a deal with China’s Sinopec in Brazil.
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