15th Apr 2014 10:47
LONDON (Alliance News) - Northern Petroleum PLC Tuesday said its pretax loss widened in 2013 as major impairments, slightly lower revenues and higher expenses hit the company.
The oil and gas exploration and development company said its pretax loss widened to EUR27.7 million from EUR6.6 million the previous year as the company was hit by a EUR17.7 million impairment charges on its assets, including in the Po Valley and Sicily in Italy and in the Wessex and Weald Basins in the UK, where future material investment to progress exploration and appraisal opportunities is not currently deemed likely.
The company also said its revenues fell 10% to EUR593,000 from EUR660,000 the previous year as the company completed thesale of its Dutch subsidiary in October, which had contributed 95% of its revenue in 2012, and its administrative expenses increased 36% to EUR5.8 million from EUR4.2 million as the company carried out a major restructuring process.
However, the company did manage to reduce its production costs by 25% to EUR755,000 from EUR1.0 million, also as a result of the disposal of its Dutch operating subsidiary.
During 2013, the company set itself three major goals; the sale of its Dutch subsidiary, the start-up of operations in Canada - which began in February 2014 - and to make progress on its Italian Southern Adriatic permits, which stalled after legislation changes.
Northern Petroleum said that the environmental approval process is still pending within the Italian government and it has not yet been possible to conduct a 3D seismic survey for the site.
However, the company said that challenges it faced in 2013 are largely behind it and it expects 2014 to be an exciting and rewarding year.
Northern Petroleum shares were down 1.1% to 26.20 pence Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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