5th Aug 2014 10:56
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dragon Oil PLC Tuesday said its pretax profit increased in its first half as larger volumes of oil sold and higher prices drove up revenues for the company.
The oil and gas exploration and production company said pretax profit increased 19% to USD394.0 million for the six months ended June 30 from USD329.8 million during the previous year.
The company said its revenues increased 11% to USD547.0 million from USD491.6 million as the company sold larger volumes of crude oil at the larger realised price of USD93 per barrel, rather than an average USD86 per barrel previously.
Dragon Oil also said its cost of sales figures fell 21% to USD120.6 million due to changes in its lifting position reducing both its operating and production costs.
As a result, it declared an interim dividend of USD20.00 cents per share, a 33% increase from USD15.00 cents previously.
However, the company did note that its administrative expenses increased 26% and it made a USD18.1 million provision for the impairment of its exploration and evaluation assets during the period after its Baragatan-1A well, off the coast of the Philippines, was plugged and abandoned in July after failing to find enough gas to warrant further testing.
In July, Dragon Oil said its production rates were slightly down in its first half compared to last year at 73,440 barrels of oil per day from 73,600 barrels previously.
However, Dragon Oil said its average June production rate was 76,100 barrels, up on 75,800 barrels in June 2013, and the production rate on July 9 was 78,031 barrels. It said most of its planned production increase for 2014 will come from new wells in the second half of the year.
As such, the company said it expects between 5% and 10% production growth in 2014, with an exit rate at between 87,000 and 90,000 barrels of oil per day in 2014, as the company moves towards its planned 2015 exit rate of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
Dragon Oil shares were up 2.1% to 572.00 pence on Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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