London-listed Energean enjoyed a stronger start to the year as revenues and total hydrocarbon production jumped following the startup of the Karish offshore gas development project in Israel.
However, the company’s bottom line profit in the first half of the year dropped to $70 million compared with $119 million in the first half of 2022 due to a higher tax bill.
Energean said that revenues rose by 73% to almost $588 million between January and June this year against the same period of 2022.
Production nearly tripled to 106,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half of this year following the long-awaited startup of the Karish gas floating production, storage and offloading facility in the Mediterranean Sea that accounted for about 66% of the total Energean’s reported production.
The Karish FPSO is currently producing gas at 6 billion cubic metres per annum, the company said.
The Karish development has significantly better operating costs than other Energean projects, with the company’s average cost of production falling by 37% to $12.1 per barrel of oil equivalent in the first half of this year against 2022.
Moving into the next year, production will benefit from the startup of the Karish satellite growth projects, which will see an increase in capacity of the infrastructure from 6.5 Bcm per annum to 8 Bcm per annum.
However, for the total of this year, Energean has slightly revised down its production guidance.
It now stands at between 120,000 boepd and 130,000 boepd from the previous forecast of between 125,000 boepd and 140,000 boepd, reflecting the Karish startup issues that have now been substantially overcome.
Optimisation activities on the Karish FPSO and subsea systems have progressed well following the startup, and the facility achieved 97% uptime in August, the company added.
Energean chief executive Mathios Rigas said: “We are preparing for the approval of a final investment decision on the Katlan development in Israel later in the year. Given the export potential from the Katlan licence, we plan to engage with local and international buyers to market our gas. Elsewhere, we look forward to the spudding of the Orion-1X exploration well next quarter, offshore Egypt, with our partner, Italy’s Eni.”
The field development plan for Katlan which covers the Katlan licence (previously known as Block 12) and parts of the Tanin lease, was submitted to the Israeli government in August for approval, Energean said.
Last month, Energean also awarded a front end engineering design contract for Katlan to Technip UK, it added.
