Talisman Energy loss widens to $1.59 billion for Q4
Talisman Energy booked a $1.59 billion fourth quarter loss Monday after taking a $1.37 billion one time impairment charge.
Alberta-based Talisman saw its fourth quarter loss widen to $1.59 billion, or $1.54 per share, from a loss of $1.01 billion, or $0.98 per share, during the same period in 2013.
Revenues dropped 95 percent in the fourth quarter to $44 million, primarily due to losses from the company’s joint ventures.
Talisman’s adjusted loss was $0.14 per share, significantly higher than analysts estimates of a $0.03 per share loss, Reuters said.
The impairment charge is tied to a reduction in the value of certain assets due to weak oil prices.
Talisman said it partially impaired its investment in the Eagle Ford shale play by $614 million and fully impaired its investment in block K44 in Kurdistan by $234 million “after determining that future investment in a capital constrained environment was unlikely.”
The company also wrote down assets in the North Sea and a joint venture with Colombia’s Ecopetrol.
Talisman said it still expects Spain’s Repsol to acquire the company sometime during the second quarter.
In December Repsol purchased Talisman Energy for $8.3 billion.
The purchase will boost Repsol’s reserves by 55 percent to over 2.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent and increase production by 76 percent to 680,000 barrels per day.
Talisman investor James Baqleh filed suit in New York’s Supreme Court in January to stop the takeover, claiming Repsol’s offer is “grossly inadequate” and that investors would be “irreparably damaged” by the deal.
The case has not been settled yet.