Taqa Expects Profit Rise

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, the state-controlled energy company in the United Arab Emirates that bought North Sea oil assets from Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp in July, is expected to report this week that quarterly profit rose as oil prices reached a record and demand for power and water increased.

Abu Dhabi National, also known as Taqa, may post higher net income on Thursday compared with the previous quarter's 397.6 million dirhams (US$108.2 million), two Dubai-based analysts said. Second-quarter profit in 2007 was 185.6 million dirhams, Bloomberg News reported.

"We expect very strong results," said Reda Gomaa, Portfolio Manager at Mashreq Bank PSC's asset management arm in Dubai. "Income from upstream activities will be strong because of the price of oil and gas, which has increased, and water and power demand is higher so returns will be higher."

Abu Dhabi National, which supplies 90 percent of the water and electricity needs of the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, aims to triple its assets to US$60 billion by 2012. International oil and gas assets make up almost two-thirds of the business, benefiting from oil prices that soared 74 percent in the past year.

Taqa reported a sixfold increase in profit in the first quarter compared to a year earlier after it included income from recently acquired oil and gas assets in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom's North Sea and Canada.