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OSLO, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Oil companies on the Norwegian continental shelf lost more than half their profits last year compared with the year before, while gas-related companies among them were the most profitable, local media reported on Monday.
The 22 oil companies made a pre-tax profit of 75 billion kroner (9.05 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, while the number in 2014 was 194 billion kroner, newspaper Aftenposten reported, citing research by the online media Sysla.
The operating incomes decreased in total from 430 billion kroner to 341 billion kroner, the report said.
"The numbers are interesting. The fact that the profits falling down are roughly equivalent to the substantial oil price decline in Norwegian kroner is as expected," Kyrre M. Knudsen, principal economist in Sparebank 1 SR-Bank was quoted as saying.
"Nevertheless, the overall result for the industry is positive. There are not so many industries that managed to get positive operating profit with such a significant revenue shortfall. That proves that this is an adaptable sector," he said, adding the situation looked even better if only the numbers from the ten biggest companies were taken into account.
Norwegian multinational oil and gas company Statoil was the dominating operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, Sysla reported.
Among the other big companies was Norske Shell which had the best results during the oil price decrease. According to Sysla, there are two reasons for this: most of the incomes were in foreign currency, during the time when the Norwegian krona was weak and the majority of incomes came from the sale of gas, whose prices did not fall as much as oil.
Gas-related companies were the most profitable companies on the Norwegian continental shelf. Dong, Engie and PGNiG took second, third, and fourth places respectively on the list of the most profitable in 2015, and they were also among the most profitable in 2014. Det norske, which topped the list, took the best position due to the several acquisitions in the last years. (1 U.S. dollar=8.29 Norwegian kroner) Enditem
