UAE’s Dana Gas extends earnings slump; Q2 profit plunges 85%

Dana Gas said a sustained slump in oil prices and lower production was to blame as the United Arab Emirates energy company reported a sharp fall in earnings for a third straight quarter on Thursday.

The company made a net profit of Dhs 25m ($6.8m) for the three months to June 30, down 85 per cent from a year earlier, according to a statement to Abu Dhabi’s bourse.

That was worse than a 73 per cent year-on-year decline in first-quarter profit, although it stayed in the black in the second quarter. The company had swung into the red in the final quarter of 2014, Reuters data shows.

Dana’s second-quarter revenue was Dhs 425m, down from Dhs 685m a year earlier. The company attributed the drop to a sharp decline in hydrocarbon prices compared to the previous 12 months.

Oil prices have fallen by more than half from a June 2014 peak.

Dana said in the statement it would increase production in Egypt and the UAE in the second half of 2015, predicting this would help increase its revenues.

Dana’s Egyptian unit delivered 35,010 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the second quarter, down 18 per cent year-on-year due to aging oilfields and delays in drilling. However, its share of production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq rose 4 per cent to 30,000 boepd over the same period.