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By Ron Bousso
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - BG Group's second-quarterearnings nearly halved as it took yet another hit frompersistently weak crude prices though record oil and gasproduction limited the damage.
BG, which has accepted a $70 billion takeover from RoyalDutch Shell, on Friday reported a 19 percent rise inoutput during the quarter to 703,000 barrels of oil equivalentper day (boed).
The company increased its full-year output forecast to "theupper half" of its previous range of 650,000 to 690,000 boed.
"This performance reflects our actions to stabilise andde-risk the business and our teams remain focused on deliveringour 2015 commitments," said BG Chief Executive Helge Lund, whotook over in February weeks before Shell's takeover bid.
Growth in the second quarter was driven by Australia andBrazil, where volumes in both more than doubled to an average of80,000 barrels per day in Australia and 143,000 for Brazil.
BG has been boosting production from the Queensland Curtisliquefied national gas (LNG) facility in Australia, where thefirst LNG cargo from the second production train was shipped inJuly.
BG's core earnings dropped to $1.372 billion down 48 percentfrom a year earlier but above analysts' forecast of $1.328billion, according to a consensus provided by the company.
BG maintained its dividend at 14.38 cents per share.
Oil prices averaged $60 a barrel in the second quarter of2015, up about $5 a barrel from the previous quarter but downfrom $110 a barrel a year earlier.
The gas producer was forced to write off $6 billion of itsbusiness in the fourth quarter of 2014, following the slump incrude prices. This followed a string of production outlook cutsafter its important gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) businessin Egypt performed disastrously. (Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by David Clarke)
