4th Feb 2014 08:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - BG Group PLC Tuesday reported lower pretax profit in its full year 2013, as expected, and swung to a pretax loss in its fourth quarter.
The FTSE 100 oil and gas giant said pretax profit fell 39% in the year ended December 31, 2013 to USD3.89 billion from USD6.35 billion in the previous year, and it posted a fourth quarter pretax loss of USD1.58 billion compared from a pretax profit of USD1.55 billion in the same period in 2012.
The company said group revenue increased in the full year to USD19.19 billion from USD18.93 billion, and in the fourth quarter to USD5.45 billion from USD4.74 billion.
BG Group said revenues increased principally due to a greater proportion of oil in its portfolio, favourable liquefied natural gas cargo delivery mix, and increased sales to Asian markets.
The company announced a full-year dividend increase of 10% to 18.02 pence per share.
However, BG made full year impairments of USD3.82 billion as the company declared force majeure at some of its liquefied natural gas operations in Egypt due to political and social instability in January and had to reduce the value of certain shale gas assets in the US.
In a recent warning based on the lower production volumes, the company had said it expects a total 2013 earnings, after impairments, to be down roughly 33% at roughly USD2.2 billion. Tuesday it reported these at USD2.45 billion, 10% better than its prior forecast.
BG Group had said business performance earnings - which excludes disposals, certain re-measurements and some impairments - would be flat at roughly USD4.4 billion. It reported these Tuesday at USD4.37 billion, slightly below its prior forecast.
The company announced in January that it achieved full-year 2013 production volumes of roughly 633,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, achieving the lower end of the company's outlook of 630,000 to 660,000 barrels.
BG Group also had revised down its 2014 forecast production volumes in January to be in the range of 590,000 to 630,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2014, and 2015 levels in the range of 710,000 to 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from the company's 775,000 to 825,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day guidance given in September.
BG Group reiterated these production forecasts Tuesday. The company reiterated that year-on-year decline in Egypt and the US are the key drivers of volume decline.
However, the company said its long-term strategy remains unchanged, and it expects to be free cash flow to be positive in 2015.
BG Group shares were up 0.5% to 1,030.50 pence in early trading Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BG..L