MADRID: Spanish oil giant Repsol posted on Thursday a 2014 net profit of €1.61 billion (Dh6.71 billion), an eightfold increase over last year when its results were hit by provisions related to Argentina’s nationalisation of its subsidiary YPF.
Average recurring net profit, adjusted for one-time gains and inventory effects, jumped 27.1 per cent to €1.7 billion as higher oil production and refining margins offset falling oil prices and the interruption of its activities in Libya.
“The results reflect the strength of Repsol’s business model and its resilience to adverse scenarios,” the company said in a statement.
Repsol said crude oil prices fell by 48 per cent over the course of the year, which reduced the value of its inventories and slashed net profit for the year by 606 million euros.
The company said its average hydrocarbon production increased in 2014 by 2.5 per cent to 354,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
This includes 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of new production from projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Russia and the United States.
Repsol said it refining margins rose by 24 per cent to $4.1 dollars a barrel, one of the highest levels among European oil firms, which pushed net income at its downstream unit up 111 per cent.
On a current-cost accounting basis, which strips out changes in the value of inventories and makes the results comparable with US oil company results, Repsol said net adjusted profit rose 11.7 per cent in 2014 to 4.75 billion euros.
During the fourth quarter of 2014 Repsol posted a net loss of €34 million, compared with a net loss of 1.092 billion euros during the same year-ago period.
Repsol announced in May 2014 that it had pulled out of Argentina, pocketing $6.3 billion in compensation and asset sales after Buenos Aires’s takeover of YPF.
The news marked the final chapter of a bitter row sparked in April 2012 when Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner ordered the nationalisation.
Repsol shares rose 0.7 per cent to €17.22 in late morning trade on the Madrid stock market.
