Aabar Petroleum Investments Company PJSC (“Aabar”) has announced a sharp increase in first quarter 2007 revenue and operating profit. First-quarter revenue increased to AED 379 million from AED 66 million in the corresponding period last year and operating profit increased to AED 110 million from AED 3 million.
Aabar attributed the growth in revenue and operating profit to the acquisition last year of its Singapore-based exploration and production subsidiary PEARL Energy Ltd. (“Pearl”). Pearl contributed 77% of the total revenue and Aabar’s Oman-based drilling division, Dalma Energy LLC (“Dalma”), made up the remaining 23%.
Aabar reported a net profit to shareholders of AED 2 million for the quarter, with earnings per share of 0.22 fils. Aabar’s net profit for the same period last year was AED 44.9 million resulting mainly from short term investment gains and interest income from proceeds from the company’s 2005 IPO.
Expressing satisfaction with Aabar’s 2007 first quarter performance, Aabar’s Chairman Sohail Al Mazrui said: “Aabar’s revenue streams are now aligned with the company’s strategy of achieving growth through a focus on exploration and production.”
Net oil production through Aabar’s Pearl subsidiaries averaged 17,275 barrels of oil per day (“bopd”) in the first quarter, up from 11,229 bopd in the fourth quarter 2006 following the start up of production in January at the Jasmine B platform in Block B 5/27 in the Gulf of Thailand.
The company also reported an increase of 3.54 million barrels from the previous year in its independently certified proven plus probable (“2P”) reserves to 39.02 million barrels as at 31 December 2006. “Thanks to a very successful exploration program in 2006, the reserve replacement ratio after production stood at 186%,” Mr. Al Mazrui added.
Aabar’s drilling division Dalma Energy added one new rig to its fleet in Saudi Arabia in February, bringing the number of operating rigs in the first quarter to 19. An additional rig is expected to commence operations for Saudi Aramco in the second quarter of 2007. Two other rigs on order are expected to be delivered in the third quarter 2007 and have been contracted to RepsolYFP in Algeria.
Background
Aabar is an oil and gas exploration, production and drilling company headquartered in Abu Dhabi and is a public joint stock company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market. Aabar has two divisions, Oman-based Dalma Energy, which is focused on drilling operations, and Pearl Energy, which is engaged in exploration and production in Southeast Asia. Aabar’s net working interest production currently stands at more 20,000 bopd from four fields in Indonesia and Thailand. The group plans to drill 10-15 exploration wells in 2007.
