Calgary: home to Paramount Energy Trust
Paramount pain as flows slide
Canada’s Paramount Energy Trust saw 2009 earnings fall by more than 50% year on year on lower gas prices and lower production due to production shut ins and the sale of “non-core” assets.
Calgary-based Paramount reported 2009 net income of $14.4 million, or 12 cents per trust unit, down from $30.8 million, or 28 cents per trust unit, last year.
Revenue fell to $418.3 million from $545.7 million in 2008.
Total production in the period fell to 57.5 billion cubic feet equivalent from 66.7 Bvfe in 2008.
Paramount said daily production fell 13% to 157.7 MMcfe per day due to voluntary shut in amid low gas prices, as well as an enforced shut in for technical reasons at its Legend property. The fall also reflected disposition and natural field decline it said.
The company spent $68.2 million on exploration and development in 2009.
Proved and probable reserves fell 3% to 471.6 Bcfe after production of 57.5 Bcfe outstripped reserve additions of 42.1 Bcfe.
For the fourth quarter of 2009, Paramount reported a net loss of $11.3 million, or nine cents per trust unit, compared with a loss of $9 million, or eight cents per unit, in the same quarter in 2008.
Revenue fell to $78.8 million from $121.2 million previously over the same period.
Overall production in the quarter fell to 13.4 Bcfe from 15.9 Bcfe in the same period in 2008. Average daily production fell to 145.9 MMcfe from 173.1 MMcfe in the year-ago period.
Paramount said it would seek approval from shareholders in June to convert the trust into a corporation, to be called Paramount Energy Operating Corporation after Canada changed its tax laws to begin taxing income trusts from next year.