By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) -Portugal’s Galp Energia reported a 29% drop in adjusted first-quarter core profit on Monday, hit by falling oil output and a decline in refining margins to less than half the levels booked a year ago.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to 669 million euros ($761 million), slightly above an average of 666 million euros expected by 17 analysts polled by the company.
Refining margins fell to $5.60 a barrel in the quarter from $12 a year ago.
Co-CEOs Maria Joao Carioca and Joao Marques da Silva said in a statement that the company showed “operational resilience under an increasingly volatile market environment.”
Shares fell 3.3% early in the trading session.
Overall quarterly adjusted net profit decreased 41% from the prior-year period to 192 million euros, but was above the 185 million euros forecast by analysts, as the company benefited from lower taxes, it said.
Core profit at the upstream unit, which comprises stakes in deepwater fields off Brazil’s coast, fell 32% year-on year in the first quarter to 385 million euros.
The upstream capex of 221 million euros was mostly directed towards the exploration and appraisal campaign in Namibia and developments in the Brazilian offshore coast, Galp said.
It kept its full-year production guidance unchanged at more than 105,000 bpd, “with stoppage days during the first quarter already representing over 40% of the full-year maintenance plan.”
The company said its working interest oil and gas production in the first quarter dropped 3% to 104,000 barrels per day (bpd). The price of Brent crude fell to an average of $75.7 per barrel from $83.2 a year earlier.
In February, Galp said it had found a significant presence of light oil and gas condensate in a fifth well in the Mopane field off the coast of Namibia, opening up new exploration opportunities.
($1 = 0.8794 euros)
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by David Latona and Rachna Uppal)
