Feb 13 (Reuters) - Australia's Origin Energy ORG.AX posted a 23.7% rise in first-half profit on Thursday, driven by higher contribution from its share in the Australia Pacific LNG project, which balanced out lower earnings at its energy markets division.

The country's second-largest power producer said its underlying profit was A$924 million ($580.18 million) for the six months ended December 31, compared with A$747 million reported a year earlier.

That beat the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$888.3 million.

($1 = 1.5926 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuter.com;Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com))