Shares in gas and oil giant BG Group rose on Thursday morning after the firm said that higher prices pushed earnings before tax up four-tenths from last year in the fourth quarter.

Earnings before tax rose to $1,477m in the final quarter of 2011 from $1,056m in the prior year period, beating market forecasts by around 8%. The strong end to the year pushed full-year earnings before tax up 15% from $4,013m to $4,632m.

The fourth quarter dividend per share has been hiked 10% to 12.96 cents, taking the full-year dividend to 23.76 cents, also up 10% on the 21.60 cents a share paid to shareholders in 2010.

During the year, the company signed a landmark agreement with Sabine Pass Liquefaction, securing 5.5m tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export volumes for 20 years. "This further expands and diversifies our supply portfolio and will enable BG Group to exceed its 2015 LNG supply target of 20 million tonnes per annum," said Chief Executive Frank Chapman.

Full-year revenue rose 22% from $17,363m to $21,148m in 2011, reflecting higher realised prices and strong demand for its LNG cargoes, particular from Asia, the group said.

Revenues in the LNG division alone stood at $8,246m in 2011, up from $6,521m the year before.

Separately, in the firm's annual strategy update released alongside its full-year results this morning, BG raises its LNG profit guidance for 2012 by over 30% to between $2.6bn and $2.8bn. "Our LNG business is set fair with the prospect of excellent profit momentum for many years," Chapman said.

Production volumes in 2011 slipped 1% to 234.1m barrels of oil equivalents due to a series of outages and third-party infrastructure restrictions in the UK North Sea.

Meanwhile, cash generated from operations increased by 17% over the year to $9,773m due to higher profits and a lower working capital cash outflow.

Shares were up 2.59% at 1,483.5p in mid-morning trade.

BC

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