CANBERRA: BG Group has seen its third quarter revenues plummet almost two thirds (63%) as it became the latest firm to be hammered by low oil prices.
The oil giant, which is set to be taken over by Shell next year, revealed earnings for the three months to September were 280 million US dollars (£182 million), compared to 759 million dollars (£495 million) in the same period last year.
On Thursday, Shell also cited low oil prices – as well as the cost of cancelled projects – for its 6.1 billion dollar (£4 billion) third quarter loss. While BG Group’s underlying profits also fell 37% to 1.2 billion dollars (£782 million), this was still ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Chief executive Helge Lund said the firm had maintained its EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) guidance for 2015. He added: “Our teams delivered another strong operational performance in the third quarter.”
“In our Upstream business, we maintained positive momentum in our growth projects in Australia and Brazil, and we continued to improve reliability and efficiency in our base assets.”
“Our LNG (liquefied natural gas) operations had a robust operating performance, despite challenging market conditions, and we have maintained our EBITDA guidance for 2015.
“We are on track to deliver our promised operating and capital cost savings for 2015 and are adding new low cash cost volumes through Australia and Brazil. These actions will help mitigate the impact of lower commodity prices on our financial results.
“We continue to work with Shell on integration planning and to secure the necessary regulatory approvals ahead of the shareholder vote. The transaction remains on track to complete in early 2016.
