Mid-sized Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy reported a 9% increase in first-quarter fiscal 2027 production to 5.4 million barrels of oil equivalent. The average price achieved rose 9% to USD 64.90 per barrel of oil equivalent. Shares rose over 5%.
Beach produces oil, gas, and gas liquids from numerous joint ventures in the onshore Cooper and Eromanga basins. Beach merged with Cooper Basin joint-venture partner Drillsearch Energy Limited in 2016, which increased equity production to about 10 million barrels of oil equivalent. This more than doubled to over 20 million barrels of oil equivalent following the successful purchase of Lattice from Origin Energy in 2018. The average field life is around seven years based on forecast production and 173 mmboe of proven and probable reserves. We credit less than 15 years, assuming some additional conversion of 2C contingent resources into the reserve category with drilling. Shale gas resources are blue-sky.