Galp Energia raises forecast, seeks Namibia exploration partner

Portugal's Galp Energia on Monday raised its core profit target for the full year after a better-than-expected performance in the second quarter and said it expects to find a partner to develop a promising oil discovery offshore Namibia.

Its shares were up 2.5 per cent on Monday.

Galp raised its target for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation this year to more than €2.7 billion ($3.1 billion), up from a previous €2.5 billion forecast.

The raised forecast reflects the contribution of its gas trading business, lifted by deliveries of liquefied natural gas cargoes from Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass export facility in Louisiana.

Galp is due to receive one million tonnes of LNG a year from the plant in a take-or-pay deal with Venture agreed in 2018.

In the second quarter, Galp's adjusted EBITDA was €840 million, surpassing the €724 million consensus provided by the company, while its second-quarter adjusted net profit rose 25 per cent to €373 million.

Lower taxes and higher oil production offset lower crude prices and narrower refining margins, the company said.

Galp, whose main business is extracting crude from rich fields offshore Brazil, said it is confident it can find a partner to develop the Mopane field off the coast of Namibia, which was initially estimated to hold at least 10 billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent.

Galp is in talks with potential partners to sell part of its 80 per cent stake to an oil company that will be the operator of the field.

Co-CEO Maria Joao Carioca said Galp had already received "several non-binding offers" and will move into bilateral talks to analyze each of them, wanting also to see their plans for Mopane and a decision should be taken by year-end.

"We're very happy that we have credible players engaging with us. We're focused on making sure this partnership is successfully derived," she told a conference call with analysts.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, editing by Inti Landauro, Louise Heavens and Toby Chopra)