15 July
Norwegian oil firm Aker BP reported a pre-tax profit of $151m in the second quarter, beating expectations amid Covid-19 pandemic. This comes after the company registered a loss before taxes of $414m in the first quarter. Aker BP also announced a record output in the quarter with a net production of 209.8 (208.1) thousand barrels of oil equivalents per day.
According to a Reuters report, Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has planned to book impairments of $4.37bn after tax due to fall in crude prices following the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of the move, the company aims to write down the value of its oil and gas assets by around $3.92bn. Woodside also expressed uncertainty over the development of gas fields in Australia and Canada.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has laid off around 850 workers amid the Covid-19 crisis, Reuters reported citing a local oil union. Most of the redundancies were from refineries and included skilled and unskilled contractors, the oil union added. In May, NNPC had more than 6,600 employees.
Russia’s Gazprom has reported $1.64bn net loss in the first quarter as its earnings take a hit due to slump in oil prices and weakening currency. The company’s gas sales to Europe and China also dropped in the first three months of the year, impacting its quarterly revenue.
