US oil and gas group ConocoPhillips said today the UK Government’s North Sea tax grab had cost it an additional £68million in taxes.
The firm, the third largest US energy major, announced higher than expected pre-tax profits of £3.1billion in the third quarter compared to £3.2billion in the same period last year.
Total revenues were £39.7billion in the three months to the end of September compared to £30.9billion in the same period last year.
In the period it also recorded £68million in costs due to the rise in the supplementary charge on North Sea oil and gas producers in the North Sea.
Chief executive Jim Mulva said the firm had benefited from higher oil prices and improved refining margins but production had been lower, due to suspended operations in Bohai Bay and Libya and higher planned down time in the North Sea and Alaska.
The firm, which has fields in the central and southern North Sea, as well as onshore terminals in the UK, also said plans to split the company into two separate businesses, refining and upstream, was on track.
The also said it remained committed to a $15billion to $20billion 2010-2012 asset disposal program.
ConocoPhillips said in January this would include all its operations in the southern North Sea, plus four non-operated assets: Alba, MacCulloch, Nicol and Statfjord UK.
It added that a $13.5billion 2011 capital programme was on track, 90% of which was in exploration and production, supporting expected reserve replacement for the year of more than 100%.
This includes its plans to bring the Jasmine discovery in the central North Sea into production some time next year.
The field, found in 2006, is described as one of the UK’s largest finds in the last 10 years.
Total recoverable reserves are expected to be more than 100million barrels of oil equivalent.
Development costs for phase one are estimated at £1.9billion and the project will include three platforms, one of them for accommodation.
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