Noble's Machala op income up 67% in Q1

Ecuador's 130MW Machala thermoelectric plant contributed US$10.2mn of operating income to the first quarter results of US company Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL), up 67% from US$6.1mn in 1Q04, the company said in its Q1 earnings statement Wednesday. "The quarter-to-quarter increase reflects lower DD&A [operating expenses] and higher power prices," the statement said. For the quarter, 208,771MWh were produced at an average sales price of 10.3 cents per kWh, up from 7.6 cents in 1Q04. Noble Energy also produced 24.5 million cubic feet a day (Mf3/d) of natural gas from the Amistad field, down from 29.1Mf3/d in 1Q04. The average gas price, however, rose to US$3.32 per thousand cubic feet from US$2.97 in 1Q04. Revenues from Machala's operations increased to US$21.6mn in 1Q05 from US$19.1mn in 1Q04. The Amistad field is in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Guayaquil and the power plant is on the coast near Machala. Noble currently operates this gas-to-power project with a 100% working interest.