LONDON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Several European energy companies have released third-quarter results, with the trend after some dire months pointing upward.
The strongest performance in Europe was given by Danish wind turbine maker Vestas. The world's biggest wind company announced a forecast-beating 70-percent rise in third-quarter net profits, citing rising sales of its wind power systems.
Randers-based Vestas said third-quarter net profit increased to $243 million, up from $143 million a year ago. Contrary to analysts' expectations, the company did not revise its 2009 full year revenue target, which remains at $10.6 billion.
The company said that "market prospects are beginning to improve," in an overall report that will anger the 425 Vestas workers who lost their jobs after the company closed its Isle of Wight factory this summer.
Vestas added it would slow down hiring in the United States.
"Due to the credit crisis, the upgrading in the United States is not progressing as quickly as planned," the company said. "At the moment, the U.S. market is characterized by excess capacity, which results in non-attractive prices and conditions on certain projects."
Vestas, which employs nearly 21,000 people, has more than 39,000 wind turbines installed all over the world.
The traditional energy sector saw some good news as well:
British Petroleum reported profits of $4.98 billion for the months between July and October, up 59 percent compared with the second quarter. The results were boosted by higher oil prices and lower production costs, delighting analysts who had expected much lower profits.
BP CEO Tony Hayward told the London Times the results represented a "very strong operating performance in a difficult environment."
BP for the past two years has cut costs across its operations -- measures analysts said were paying off recently.
Fellow British energy producer BG Group Wednesday said its net profits dropped by 43.5 percent in the third quarter because of weaker gas prices and lower production levels.
Net profit sank to $793 million in the third quarter, compared with $1.4 billion a year ago.
Despite the falling profits, BG head Frank Chapman gave a confident outlook for the company.
"These results demonstrate once again the strength of BG Group's integrated gas business and this, together with current production levels around 700,000 barrels per day, up 12 percent on the fourth quarter of 2008, provides us with confidence in the outlook for the group's performance," Chapman said.
