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Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (Taqa), a leading global energy company headquartered in Abu Dhabi with operations in 11 countries, announced its financial results and operational highlights for the six-month period ending June 30, 2019.
Taqa recorded AED9 billion of revenue in the first half of the year, a 5 percent increase compared to H1 2018. The Group’s oil and gas business delivered strong performance with an 11 percent increase in revenue by increased production volumes from its assets in Europe and Iraq. Revenues from the power and water business remained stable, increasing by AED73 million to reach AED5.7 billion.
For the first half of the year, the group reported AED4.8 billion in EBITDA, which remained steady with H1 2018. Strong performance of the Group’s
oil and gas business delivered a 15 percent improvement in EBITDA of AED193 million.
The Group’s overall capex also rose to AED957 million in the first six months of 2019, a 15 percent increase when compared to the same period in 2018. The increase in Oil and Gas capex was largely driven by the AED116 million acquisition of an additional 7.5 percent working stake in the Atrush Block from Marathon Oil Kurdistan BV in May of this year.
The acquired stake increases Taqa’s working interest in the project from 39.9 percent to 47.4 percent.
Additional capex in Iraq was focussed towards bringing new wells on stream and the impact of debottlenecking work to increase the capacity of the current production facility.
This has proven to be a worthwhile investment, with Taqa’s entitlement production increasing to 5,728 boe/d in H1 2019, a 149 percent improvement compared to the previous year.
While Taqa continued to witness robust operational performance, the bottom line was somewhat impacted by one-off items. The Group reported a net profit (Taqa share) of AED214 million, compared to AED278 million in H1 2018 on the back of unfavourable mark-to-market revaluations within its US-based power asset, an increased deferred tax charge due to changes in Alberta provincial tax rates and a reduction in share of results from investments in associates.