ORGCD Origin Energy Ltd

   By Robb M. Stewart 
 

MELBOURNE, Australia--Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG.AU) logged a strong jump in sales revenue from its natural-gas operations in the last quarter as the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas venture on Australia's east coast continued to ramp up production.

The APLNG project loaded and shipped 30 cargoes in the three months through March, and Origin's share of production from the project was up 10% on a year earlier.

That helped lift overall production for Origin by a similar 10% year-over-year to 62.7 petajoules equivalent for the latest quarter and, with higher prices, drove a 27% increase in revenue to 491.9 million Australian dollars (US$372.9 million).

Scheduled maintenance on APLNG's second production line was completed in March, with excess gas volumes during the shutdown directed to the domestic market. In April, Origin received A$136 million from the joint venture as it returned funds to its owners.

One of the country's largest energy retailers with about 4.2 million customers, Origin has tightened its focus on operations producing about 6,000 megawatts of power generation capacity and natural-gas production that helps to feed the APLNG gas-export venture on the Queensland coast that counts ConocoPhillips as a partner. The company last year agreed to sell its conventional oil and gas assets to Beach Energy Ltd. (BPT.AU) for A$1.59 billion.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Origin's gas revenue was 48% higher at A$1.48 billion as production climbed 14% to 189.6 petajoules equivalent. Petajoules equivalent is a measure of the volume of different petroleum products based on their energy content.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2018 20:13 ET (00:13 GMT)

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