Japan’s biggest oil and gas explorer Inpex raised its forecast for annual net profit by five per cent on Thursday, as lower-than-expected costs offset reduced shipment from its key Ichthys liquefied natural gas project in Australia due to maintenance.
The company now expects net profit of JPY390 billion ($2.6 billion) for 2025, up from its August projection of JPY370 billion and above analysts’ estimate of JPY370.9 billion in an LSEG poll.
Net profit for the period from January to September rose 1.4 per cent on the year to a record JPY293.4 billion.
"Although the shutdown maintenance at Ichthys took slightly longer than expected, weighing on profits, some expenses were not fully recorded, resulting in stronger outlook," Daisuke Yamada, senior managing executive officer, told a press conference.
With the improved outlook, Inpex raised the upper limit of its share buyback plan to 60 million shares from 50 million announced in August, and extended the buyback period to the end of January from the end of December.
Inpex had expected 116 LNG cargoes to be shipped from Ichthys this year, but will fall short of that, Yamada said. Train 1 resumed production at end-September, and Train 2 restarted in early November after maintenance begun in August.
Train 1 is already running at full capacity and Train 2 will reach full operation this week, the company said.
Inpex owns a stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil project through the Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development (SODECO) consortium which includes the Japanese industry ministry, Itochu, Marubeni and Japan Petroleum Exploration.
Yamada said Inpex would consult with its partners regarding responses to US sanctions on Rosneft, a key shareholder in the project.
Last month, Washington sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil to force the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.
Inpex plans to book an impairment loss of five billion to JPY10 billion on Iraq’s Block 10 oil exploration area, 80 per cent owned by Lukoil and 20 per cent by Inpex, due to US sanctions on the Russian company.
"We have no plans to withdraw from the development project and will continue discussion with Lukoil on future measures," Yamada said.
Inpex is doing early-stage design work on its Abadi LNG project in Indonesia’s Masela block.
The front-end engineering design (FEED) process, expected to cost about $1 billion, is on track, with a final investment decision targeted for 2027, Yamada added.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
