Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) expects a dramatic recovery in profits, helped by a doubling of oil prices, after falling oil and gas prices pushed headline profits down 90 percent in the first quarter.
Oil prices will more than double from their current level to $120-$150 a barrel in one year's time, TAQA Chief Executive Peter Barker-Homek told journalists on Thursday after the government-owned company reported first quarter net profit of 40 million dirhams ($10.89 million).
"If we all agree that we have hit the bottom of the oil and gas market, which we do believe, we will see the company's profitability relative to Q1 increase quite dramatically as oil and gas prices recover throughout the world," he said.
"Given the low level of investment in 2009 in oil and gas, the supply and demand balance is going to be extremely tight and that could get us into a world of $120 or $150 (a barrel) at the beginning of next year," he said.
The crude oil price fell below $57 a barrel on Thursday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast global oil demand would contract at the fastest rate since 1981.
Shares in the diversified energy company, which runs oil wells and power plants, fell around 7 percent, with the outlook failing to lift sentiment in a weaker market. Shares in the company have fallen 58 percent from a 12-month high in June.
"On a day like today you can't say TAQA's shares are affected by bad earnings because overall the sentiment is one of profit-taking," said Alfred Fayek, director in the GCC institutional desk team at EFG-Hermes.
Barker-Homek said falling prices had created buying opportunites and that the group aimed to spend $2 billion to $4 billion on acquisitions in 2009 in Canada and elsewhere after spending $500 million so far.
TAQA has expanded its global footprint as an energy investment company since it was launched in 2005 with a diversified portfolio of activities, and earlier this month won a $1.22 billion deal to build two power stations in Morocco.
In earnings details, oil and gas revenues fell 13 percent to 1.62 billion dirhams due to a decline in realised prices and changing exchange rates, the company said.
By contrast, the company increased revenue from the sale of electricity and water by 14 percent to 1.39 billion dirhams.
The profit decline was mitigated by 174 million dirhams in revenue that Taqa realised from the repurchase of bonds, while tax expenses fell off dramatically, to 6 million dirhams from 241 million a year earlier, the company said.
The first-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders in 2008 was 398 million dirhams.