Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 26
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
SC KazMunaiGas Exploration Production ("KMG EP" or "the Company") increased its net profit in 2015 up to 244 billion tenge ($1.1 billion]) compared with 47 billion tenge ($263 million) in 2014, the company said Feb. 26.
The increase in net profit in 2015 was largely due to devaluation of the Tenge in the year, write-down of JSC Ozenmunaigas assets to nil in 2014, and lower taxes, other than on income, which offset a decline in revenue following the drop in oil price.
Revenue in 2015 was 530 billion tenge ($2.38 billion), 37 percent less compared to 2014. The lower revenue was the result of a 47 percent decline in Brent price and a 23 percent decline in average domestic realized price from 48,000 tenge per ton in 2014 to 37,000 tenge per ton in 2015, as well as lower export volumes, which were partially offset by a 24 percent increase in the average Tenge-US dollar exchange rate.
The company recognized a foreign exchange gain of 449 billion Tenge ($2.02 billion). Net cash as of late December 2015 amounted to 1.09 trillion tenge ($3.2 billion) compared with 727 billion tenge ($4 billion) as of late December 2014. The decline in net cash in US$ terms by US$0.8bn was primarily caused by dividends paid to shareholders, income taxes paid largely related to foreign exchange gain, oil fields capital expenditures, slightly offset by dividends and finance income received.
Production expenses in 2015 were 225 billion tenge ($1.01 billion), a 6 percent increase compared with 2014, mainly due to increased employee benefit expenses relating to production personnel, which was partially offset by a decline in repairs and maintenance expenses.
KMG EP is among the top three Kazakh oil producers. The overall production in 2015 was 12.4 million tons.