Abu Dhabi's Taqa hits 1 million barrels a month production from Kurdish asset

The energy company's profit for the second quarter surged 24% on higher oil and gas production

The Atrush oilfield in Kurdistan, Iraq. The company last achieved a million barrels of monthly production in July. Courtesy: Taqa
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Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, reached 1 million barrels in monthly oil production from its Kurdish asset.

The company, through its Kurdish affiliate Taqa Iraq, reached the record level from the Atrush oilfield for the first time after July 2017.

Gross production from the block is around 34,000 barrels per day, in line with Taqa's targets for the second quarter of the year, the company said.

The added output was largely due to new wells coming onstream as well as efforts undertaken over the past few months to remove bottlenecks, enabling the subsidiary to increase the capacity of volumes handled by the production facility, Taqa said.

Earlier this month, Taqa, in which Abu Dhabi Power Corporation holds a majority stake, said its second-quarter profit surged 24 per cent, on the back of higher oil and gas production.

Oil and gas production increased 3 per cent to 124,760 barrels of oil equivalent per day during the first half of the year.

The state-owned company's profit attributable to shareholders was Dh208 million in the three months ending June 30, Taqa said this month in a regulatory filing to the Abu Dhabi stock exchange, where its shares trade.

Quarterly revenue climbed 9 per cent to Dh4.66 billion year-on-year.

In July, Moody's Investors Service affirmed Taqa's long-term issuer rating and upgraded the state-controlled oil and gas investment company's baseline credit assessment on improved operational performance.

The ratings agency affirmed an A3 long-term issuer rating with a stable outlook, reflecting expectations that Taqa will continue to benefit from state support, Moody's said. The rating agency also upgraded Taqa's BCA by a notch to B1 from B2.

"The upgrade of Taqa's BCA reflects Moody's view that the stabilisation of the operating performance of the oil and gas operations, and a gradual reduction in gross debt, have contributed to a slow improvement in the company's consolidated credit metrics," Moody's said.