Origin Energy Revenue Buoyed by LNG Output, Higher Prices

MELBOURNE, Australia--Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG.AU) racked up a 40% jump in first-half sales revenue due to increased liquefied natural gas output and higher prices for its products.

Revenue for the six months through December rose to 1.36 billion Australian dollars (US$1.11 billion) from A$973.9 million in the same period the year before, and was up 26% year-over-year at A$686.3 million in the second quarter.

The Australian energy company's production increased by 12% to 172.6 petajoules equivalent in the half year from 160.7 petajoules a year earlier. Petajoules equivalent is a measure of the volume of different petroleum products based on their energy content.

One of the country's largest energy retailers with about 4.2 million customers, Origin has tightened its producing operations to about 6,000 megawatts of power generation capacity and natural-gas production that helps to feed the Australia Pacific LNG gas-export venture on the eastern Queensland coast.

The company last year agreed to sell to Beach Energy Ltd. (BPT.AU) its conventional oil and gas assets for A$1.59 billion. Origin will recognize earnings from the sold Lattice Energy unit through January.

Chief Executive Frank Calabria said the APLNG venture continued to perform well and on Jan. 1 loaded its 200th cargo of liquefied natural gas. Planned maintenance of the project is set to be completed in the current quarter, with one production line set to be out for about 16 days, he added.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2018 17:23 ET (22:23 GMT)