Australia's Beach Energy falls as profit slides on higher costs, softer oil prices (updated)

Beach Energy

05/02/2026 24:05

Updates with details from paragraph 2 onwards

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Australia's Beach Energy BPT.AX reported an 8% fall in first-half profit on Thursday, pressured by higher cost of sales and softer oil and liquids prices, sending its shares more than 5% lower.

Shares of the oil and gas producer slid as much as 5.18% to A$1.190 in their steepest intraday drop since January  7, while the benchmark ASX200 .AXJO edged 0.2% lower.

The Adelaide-headquartered company attributed the profit drop to higher cost of sales, including third-party purchases, non-cash inventory adjustments linked to Waitsia liquefied natural gas operations, and weaker oil and liquids pricing.

Oil prices fell nearly 20% last year in their sharpest drop since the 2020 pandemic, after a turbulent final quarter marked by supply gluts and geopolitical strains spanning Ukraine to the Middle East. O/R

Beach Energy posted an underlying net profit after tax of A$219 million ($153.28 million) for the six months ended December 31, down from A$237 million a year earlier but above Visible Alpha's forecast of A$180.4 million.

In December last year, Beach Energy began supplying gas from its Waitsia onshore project, north of Perth, to an LNG export facility.

Beach Energy's sales revenue dipped 1% from last year to A$982 million, with four Waitsia LNG cargoes contributing A$233 million.

Production fell 7% to 9.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), impacted by the floods in Southern Australia's Cooper Basin.

Beach Energy, however, maintained its fiscal 2026 forecast for production of 19.7 MMboe-22 MMboe and capital expenditure of A$675 million- A$775 million.

The board declared an interim dividend of 1 Australian cent per share, down from 3 cents per share a year earlier.

($1 = 1.4288 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Subhranshu Sahu)

 ((Tanishk.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; X: @thatstanishk;))