News: BPT UPDATE 1-Australia's Beach Energy warns of asset downgrade as oil output shrinks

(Adds details, company comment, quarterly results)

April 30 (Reuters) - Beach Energy (BPT) has undertaken an urgent review of its reserves across the Western Flank oil and gas fields in Australia after oil output declined, and said it may have to downgrade the value of its assets later this year.

The company said on Friday recent drilling results revealed that decline rates within the Bauer field, the largest oil field on the Western Flank, were higher than expected. Drilling results at other oil wells were also at the lower end of expectations.

"The past five years has seen the Western Flank outperform our expectations, but we are now witnessing material decline from a number of fields," CEO Matt Kay said.

The company downgraded its annual pro-forma production forecast to 25.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) to 25.7 MMboe from 26.5 MMboe to 27.5 MMboe earlier.

Beach also withdrew its five-year outlook, and said it will no longer provide a five-year outlook in its current form.

The downgrade at Western Flank translates to a loss of about 5% of Beach's total proven and probable reserves as at 30 June 2020.

Beach Energy will now move focus away from the existing oilfields and on to its exploration portfolio in the region.

The company reported quarterly production volume of 5.89 MMboe versus 6.94 MMboe last year, and posted a near 9% fall in sales revenue.