NU Online News Service, March 29, 2:51 p.m.EDT

Editor's Note: Oil Insurance Ltd. 2010 earnings wereincorrectly reported in an earlier version of this article,including the company's 2009 earnings, which were $1.1 billion, andits membership that totals 54 members, of which ExxonMobil is not amember.

Oil Insurance Ltd. reported 2010 net income of $782 million,down 29 percent from the previous year.

In a statement issued yesterday, Hamilton, Bermuda-based OIL—amutual insurer owned by companies in the energy industry—reportsthat net income declined $318 million from $1.1 billion in2009 to $782 million.

The company reports $784 million in written and earned premiumwhile incurring losses totaling $423 million.

OIL's net underwriting income was $362 million with netinvestment income of $436 million.

“The fact that the company did not suffer any losses from 2010hurricane activity was a highlight and enabled the company to focuson dealing with expected losses,” says Robert Stauffer, presidentand CEO of OIL, in a statement. “At the same time, the company wasable to finalize, and pay, the remainder of the outstanding losspayments from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”

Stauffer notes that in close to 40 years of existence thecompany has grown to insure nearly $2 trillion of members' globalassets secured by more than $3 billion in shareholder's equity andcompany total assets at the end of the year totaling $5.9billion.

George Hutchings, senior vice president and COO, adds that withthe implementation of changes to its windstorm coverage and itsrating and premium plan, internal issues the company faced in 2009“are considered addressed and resolved.”

“The time is right to focus on external-facing initiativeswith a view to growing our membership—a strategic goal which ourmembership survey indicates is keenly supported by ourshareholders,” Hutchings says.

OIL is comprised of close to 54 energy producers.

According to Hutchings, the insurer was unaffected by theDeepwater Horizon incident because BP is not a member. He notesthat since the incident, the insurer is well positioned to providean increase in coverage to those who are currently members.

This story was corrected on April 18 reflecting 2009 netincome and membership were confused with OIL's sister company OilCasualty Insurance Ltd.