(Alliance News) - Shares in Harbour Energy PLC rallied on Thursday as interim profit jumped on the back of higher production and commodity prices, leading the North Sea-focused oil and gas firm to bump up the scale of its share buyback.
Shares in Harbour Energy were up 10% at 474.00 pence in London early Thursday, making it the best performer in the FTSE 250 in early dealings.
For the six months to June 30, revenue and other income was USD2.67 billion, surging 78% from USD1.50 billion last year and pretax profit was USD1.49 billion, multiplied from USD120.2 million.
This was on production of 211,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 40% on a year ago.
"The 40% increase in production compared to the first half of 2021 is driven by a full contribution from the Premier portfolio and our significant UK investment programme which has seen new wells brought on-line," the company said.
In late March 2021, Harbour Energy was formed from the merger of Premier Oil PLC and Chrysaor Holdings Ltd.
Further, Harbour said it achieved realised, post-hedging oil and UK gas prices of USD82 per barrel in the half, up from USD58 a year before, and 69p per therm, up from 38p.
Crude oil sales amounted to USD1.54 billion, up from USD897 million last year.
Turning to returns, Harbour increased its USD200 million share buyback initiated in June to USD300 million. Further, it declared an interim dividend of 11 cents.
Looking ahead, Harbour narrowed full-year production guidance to a range of 200,000 to 210,000 barrels per day, from a range of 195,000 to 210,000 previously. Forecast free cash flow is expected around USD1.8 billion to USD2.0 billion, raised from the forecast of USD1.5 billion to USD1.7 billion given alongside its 2021 results.
"We continue to have the potential to be net debt free in 2023 and retain significant optionality over our future capital allocation, including for value accretive M&A and additional shareholder returns," it added.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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Harbour Energy (HBR)
