Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, a leading Nigerian indigenous oil and gas company listed on both the Nigerian Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange has announced that it will issue its Interim financial results tomorrow.
The company’s first quarter earnings saw a sales decline of 36 percent year on year to $83m. Seplat also posted a loss before tax of $15m and loss after tax of $19m which compare with Profit Before Tax and Profit After Tax of $25m and $23m respectively in Q1 2015.
Q1 year on year topline decline was largely driven by a 53 percent year on year decline in oil sales to $56m which was weighed down by lower oil production and realised oil prices. Realised oil prices declined by 33 percent year on year to $35.4/b.
The company’s Q1 2016 numbers were affected by disruptions to the third-party operated Trans Forcados System (TFS), Seplat’s major export pipeline route.
Management statements reveal that the operator of the TFS, Shell Nigeria, had declared a force majeure at the terminal on February 21, following disruptions to production and exports caused by a spill on the Forcados Terminal subsea crude export pipeline.
With Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil exports set to wait another one month before exports is resumed as repairs continue after a militant attack may yet further impact the fortunes of the company whose products also makes us of the same terminal.
Shell Petroleum Development Company last week said that it expects the export terminal to be back in operation after a month. Forcados exports were between 250,000 and 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) prior to an unusually sophisticated attack by a militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), on an underwater pipeline in February.
Meanwhile Seplat, last month announced plans to exceed $500 million capacity investments in gas business by the end of 2016 with a full year production guidance target of 41,000 to 48,000 barrel per day and capital expenditures of about $130million
