14th Apr 2015 08:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - African-focused oil and gas company Aminex PLC Tuesday said its pretax loss narrowed slightly in 2014 ahead of the company's plans to bring the Kiliwani North project into production in the first half of 2015.
The company's pretax loss for the year ended December 31 narrowed to USD5.9 million from a USD6.9 million loss in 2013 despite recording impairment charges and seeing revenue fall.
Revenue declined to USD444,000 from USD724,000, and administrative expenses experienced a small increase to USD2.8 million from USD2.4 million. The company also booked a USD622,000 impairment against the Victorovca and Valeni licenses in the Republic of Moldova. These were partially offset by finance costs halving to USD2.2 million from USD4.4 million.
"This is a very promising time for the company, with a line of sight to first commercial production from Kiliwani North and ongoing appraisal of the Ntorya discovery. Going forward the company will maintain strict cost control measures while opportunistically using the downturn in commodity prices to expand its business with production and development led opportunities in Africa," said Chief Executive Jay Bhattacherjee.
The Kiliwani North development is in Tanzania and is expected to begin production during the first half of 2015. Aminex is the operator of the license with a 58.5% stake whilst fellow London-listed Solo Oil PLC holds a 6.5% stake, with an option to increase it to 13%.
The project is connected to the country's main infrastructure after the regional pipeline connecting Dar es Salaam to Mnazi Bayand was completed at the beginning of April.
Kiliwani North will initially produce around 20 million cubic feet per day of gas through the processing plant, which is currently under construction, and gas will be sold from the wellhead to minimise operating costs.
The project has faced delays, mainly attributable to the gas sales agreement. The agreement is part of a larger commercial transaction with neighbouring producers who will use the same facilities, which has caused delays, and the company said it is aware of "shareholder frustration" regarding the situation.
Aminex also will drill the Ntorya 2 well on the Ruvuma basin in 2015, where the Kiliwani North project also is located.
Aminex continues to seek alternative financing options to enable it to reduce and fully repay its USD8 million corporate loan, or if necessary a refinancing solution, it said in its statement Tuesday.
In 2014, the company invested a total of USD78.7 million in 2014, reflecting a slight rise from USD75.1 million in 2013.
Aminex shares fell 6.8% to 1.70 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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