Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the government-controlled utility pumping crude and natural gas from Canada to the UK, said it’s cutting capital expenditure and planning to sell assets after low oil prices slashed oil and gas revenue by almost half.
The company, known as Taqa, said its 50 percent stake in the Lakefield wind farm in the US state of Minnesota is up for sale and that it’s divesting its holding in Abu Dhabi-based transport company Massar Solutions PJSC. Taqa reduced capital spending for this year by 42 percent to 1.8 billion dirhams ($490 million).
Taqa narrowed its loss to 1.8 billion dirhams in 2015 from 3 billion dirhams a year earlier, while revenue slid to 19.3 billion dirhams from 27.3 billion in 2014, it said. Oil and gas revenue dropped to 6.3 billion dirhams last year from 12.1 billion in 2014. It took a pre-tax impairment charge of 835 million dirhams in 2015.
The Abu Dhabi-based company has eliminated more than 900 jobs, or about 25 percent of its global workforce, it said. Taqa cut 32 percent of its oil and gas positions and 55 percent of its headquarters workforce, according the statement.
Pete Jones, TAQA’s UK managing director said, “2015 was undoubtedly a difficult year for the industry, but we faced up to the economic challenges and reduced our overall costs by 30%, thanks in no small part to the culture of ownership that we see across our business. In particular, restructuring our UK offshore organisation to put more TAQA staff in key leadership positions was a fundamental step in order to refine our approach and ensure our long-term success.
“In December we also hit a significant milestone when we successfully brought Cladhan, our largest field to date, on stream. In addition our platform uptime improved upon 2014 performance with 87% reliability, and we continue to be firmly focused on delivering safe, efficient and sustainable operations and development in the UK North Sea.”
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