Repsol earnings rise on higher production, efficiencies

MADRID (AP) - Spanish energy company Repsol says strong production and efficiency improvements drove a 65.3 percent increase in net profit in the first half of the year.

Repsol said Thursday that profit for the January-June period reached 1.05 billion euros ($1.23 billion) compared with 639 million euros for the first half of 2016.

The company said its upstream operations, which include the extraction of oil and gas, saw their earnings rise.

Repsol said greater efficiency improved the earnings, together with more favorable global prices for raw materials and production increases. The company increased output in Peru, resumed activity in Libya, and began exploitation of new deposits in Brazil.

During the first half of 2017, Repsol also reported large discoveries of oil and gas deposits in Alaska and Trinidad and Tobago.

Shares in Repsol S.A. were up 1.7 percent at 14.2 euros in early morning trading in Madrid.