Basic Energy H1 income hits P194M

Publicly listed Basic Energy Corp. Inc. doubled its net income to P194 million in the first half of the year from P92.5 million in the same period last year, due largely to the sale of a subsidiary.

Similarly, the company’s revenues in the first six months surged to P232 million from P115 million in the same period last year, a company filing in the Philippine Stock Exchange showed.

The spike in the company’s earnings can be largely attributed to the P225-million income it derived in the first half of the year from the sale of subsidiary, Basic Petroleum and Minerals Inc.

Basic Energy’s earnings per share meanwhile improved to 7.95 centavos per share as of end-June 2012, from only 3.79 centavos per share as of end June last year.

For this year, Basic Energy intends to move forward its petroleum and geothermal projects, but has decided to temporarily shelve its ethanol program.

According to Basic Energy, it has allocated $450,000 or roughly P19 billion for the operations of its oil and gas business for the whole year.

There will be no need for the company to raise additional funds for its oil and gas projects as its requirements can be addressed by its cash and short-term investments, it explained.

For 2012, Basic Energy will continue with its oil and gas projects together with other exploration firms, particularly for Service Contract (SC)53 off Mindoro and SC 47, in Mindoro.

Basic Energy reported that for SC 47, the processing and interpretation works on the newly acquired seismic data have resulted in the identification of prospects.

More detailed reviews will be conducted by the group operating SC 47 once the Department of Energy grants the group’s request to extend the term of the current subphase of exploration.

Basic has a 1 percent interest in this SC.

The SC 53 consortium, meanwhile, agreed to drill a prospect, the Progreso-2, to fulfill its obligations under an existing contract with the government. Planned geology and geophysical works will be negotiated, for which the group has earmarked a firm budget of $8.42 million and a contingent budget of $6.14 million.

Basic has a 3 percent participating interest in SC 53.

As for its planned 20-megawatt Mabini geothermal power project in Batangas, Basic Energy said it was continuing discussions with companies that are interested in a joint venture.

In the meantime, Basic Energy is undertaking the necessary exploratory works within the site to fulfill its obligations under its geothermal service contract.

Once the proposed geothermal power facility is operational, Basic Energy plans to sell the power to be generated to the electric cooperatives and the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).