Nigeria’s SEPLAT Petroleum company today announced strong fourth quarter results for 2017 with many analysts now raising their forecasts for the performance of the company in 2018.
Seplat’s sales came in at US$174m, up 318% y/y while profit before tax, PBT of US$46m compares with a loss before tax of -US$85m in Q4 2016.
It is the second consecutive quarter that the firm is posting profit and the strong performance reflects positives from undisrupted exports via the Trans Forcados System (TFS).
On a y/y basis, average combined production was up 43% for FY2017 to 36,923 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
While average realised oil prices were up 25% y/y to US$50.4, gas prices were flattish y/y. Other positives on the P&L include a significant expansion of gross margin to 50.5% and a -36% y/y decline in opex. In 2017, average production costs came in at US$6.0 per barrel compared with US$8.8/b in 2016. However, Seplat posted a PAT of US$271m, primarily driven by a tax credit of US$224m.
