Wintershall Dea says exploration income more than doubled in Q3

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Oil and gas producer Wintershall Dea said on Tuesday that its most closely watched measure of earnings more than doubled in the third quarter of 2022, benefiting from strong operational performance and as the Norwegian Nova project was successfully brought on stream in July.

Wintershall Dea, a long-term partner to Russian gas giant Gazprom, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exploration expenses (EBITDAX) - a standard oil industry measure - came in at 2.6 billion euros ($2.57 billion) in the three months to end September, up 162% year-on-year.

The company, owned jointly by BASF and investor group LetterOne, posted adjusted net income of 851 million euros, up 264% from 234 million a year earlier, saying the figure was adjusted for non-cash impairments on its 15.5% Nord Stream 1 shareholding.

Oil prices - after soaring on the energy tightness this year - have fallen sharply only recently on an economic slowdown in China and on a strong dollar that makes crude more expensive for non-American buyers, although a deal to lower output made by exporters' group OPEC+ is limiting losses.

Production of hydrocarbons at Wintershall Dea in the three months of July through September was 4% above the same period last year at 614,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), it said.

($1 = 1.0129 euros)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Miranda Murray)