InterOil records US$23.5m net profit for Q2

INTEROIL Corp last Friday posted a consolidated net profit of US$23.5 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2011, The National reports.
This compares with a net profit of US$7.8 million for the same period last year, an improvement of US$15.7 million.
The operating segments of corporate, midstream refining and downstream collectively returned a net profit for the quarter of US$34.5 million.
The development segments of upstream and midstream liquefaction yielded a net loss of US$11 million.
This movement was mainly due to higher foreign exchange gains realised on the strengthening of the kina against the US dollar from 0.3895 at the start of the second quarter of this year and ending the quarter at 0.4350, the gains realised on shares acquired as an investment interest in Flex LNG.
InterOil's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the quarter was a gain of US$39 million, compared with a gain of US$14.9 million for the same period last year, an increase of US$24.1 million.
Total revenue increased by US$78.5 million from US$225.3 million last year to US$303.8 million for the second quarter this year.
In the quarter, InterOil and Pacific LNG Ope­rations Ltd entered into framework agreements with Samsung Heavy Industries and Flex LNG Ltd, conditional upon a final investment decision relating to the construction and operation of a 1.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) floating natural gas liquefaction processing vessel.
The project was intended to be integrated with and augment proposed infrastructure to liquefy natural gas from the onshore Elk and Antelope fields in the Gulf province.
The onshore liquefaction facility was being pursued with Energy World Corp. and Mitsui and Co Ltd.
Subsequent to the quarter end, InterOil announced on Aug 2 the signing of a heads of agreement with Noble Clean Fuels Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Noble Group Ltd, which was to form the basis for negotiation of a binding, definitive agreement for the supply to Noble of 1.0mtpa of LNG from InterOil's proposed Gulf LNG project in Papua New Guinea.
InterOil chief executive officer Phil Mulacek said: "In addition to continuing to pre-invest in the Gulf LNG project in advance of FID, InterOil achieved another milestone in advancing our development project with the recent execution of a HOA with Noble Group.
"Noble has a proven track record of providing long-term fuel supply to major utilities across Japan, South Korea and China and is a good fit with InterOil's strategy of expanding LNG markets," he said.
He said the addition of Sir Rabbie Namaliu, former Prime Minister and former Petroleum and Energy minister to InterOil's PNG advisory board should assist InterOil in discussions with government departments in developing the Gulf LNG Project.
"Furthermore, we have advanced our understanding of the structure of the Triceratops/Bwata structure, having recently completed the acquisition of three of the four additional seismic lines over the field, and are now preparing to drill the Triceratops 2 well," he said.