Beach Energy has reported its lowest quarterly production in nearly four years as the energy company’s shares fell nearly 8 per cent.
Quarterly production totalled 5.3 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) – down 7 per cent from the previous quarter and nearly 15 per cent below for the same period the previous year
According to Beach Energy, the drop was driven by declines in supplies and both planned and unscheduled maintenance at Cooper Basin and Western Flanks.
With lower production, sales volumes fell 5 per cent to 5.48 mmboe on the corresponding period.
But despite this, Beach reported a 3 per cent increase in sales revenue due to higher oil prices, with a quarterly revenue of $398 million.
Highlights for the quarter included first gas from the Otway offshore development campaign delivered to the east coast market.
Beach’s acting chief executive Morné Engelbrecht said delivering gas from the Otway offshore campaign represented a key milestone for the company.
“This is an exciting time at beach as we set the key building blocks as part of our strategic production growth target of 28 mmboe in FY24,” Engelbrecht said.
Beach has invested heavily to source new supplies in order to lay the foundations for growth in the coming years.
Although field production in Western Flank is in decline, Beach said field production is performing better than the previously disclosed decline rate of 35 to 45 per cent in FY22.
Connection to five development wells is expected to reduce declines in second half of the financial year.
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