Repsol says last year was a record setter

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Spanish energy company Repsol said Wednesday it was coming off a record-setting year, with earnings and output improving with the rest of the energy sector.

Net income and adjusted net income, at $2.9 billion, were the highest level in six years. Its exploration and production business represented about 25 percent of that. Production averaged 695,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with the company attributed to the resumption of activity in Libya and new projects from Trinidad and Tobago to Brazil.

Full-year 2017 production beat its goal by 2 percent.

"The 2017 earnings reflected the strength of the company's integrated model, its flexibility and its capacity to adapt to lower crude oil and gas prices," its earnings statement read.

The downturn in crude oil prices eased by the middle of last year, giving energy companies more capital flexibility for robust exploration and production programs. Repsol said it saw an average price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, of $54.20 per barrel, though it closed the year at its highest level since June 2015.

The company last year said its production gains were driven by "significant" wins in the United States and in Trinidad and Tobago. Most of the production from the United States comes from inland shale basins, though Repsol noted part of its success came from the start of operations at its Buckskin project in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Last year was a "great success," the company aid, with new discoveries made in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.

"With the former, Repsol announced the largest hydrocarbon find of the last 30 years on U.S. soil," its report read. "The contingent recoverable resources of the area where the discovery was made are estimated at approximately 1.2 billion barrels of light crude oil."

Through September, the company earned a net profit of $1.8 billion, a 41 percent increase over the same period last year.