MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cost cutting helped Repsol to exceed expectations in the first quarter, a period that coincided with crude prices hitting a 12-year low, said The Financial Times.
Spain’s biggest oil producer reported adjusted net income of EUR572m in the first quarter, well ahead of estimates of EUR261.2m, although still down from EUR928m a year earlier. Those results had been boosted by an exceptional EUR500m gain related mostly to funds received for YPF, a former subsidiary that was renationalised by the Argentine government.
Repsol said measures "to increase efficiency and savings in recent months led the company to achieve positive results despite low oil prices."
At the start of the year, it announced deeper spending cuts and billions of euros in writedowns following the slump in crude prices, as it revealed it had suffered a net loss of EUR1.2bn for 2015 after one-off charges of EUR2.9bn. Last month it cut its proposed dividend to EUR0.30 per share, from an originally proposed EUR0.50.
As MRC informed earlier, during the first quarter of 2016 (Q1 2016), Repsol planned to complete the construction work of its new metallocene polyethelene plant at its Tarragona site. Repsol planned to start up the plant and begin production and marketing of this new product during Q2 2016.
Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC