16th May 2019 11:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Serinus Energy PLC on Thursday said it swung to loss in the first quarter of 2019 following a decline in crude oil prices and slowdown in production.
The oil & gas company posted a pretax loss of USD2.0 million for the three months to the end of March versus USD1.5 million profit reported a year earlier, as revenue fell to USD1.5 million from USD2.0 million.
The decrease in revenue was attributed to an 8% fall in the average realized price and 17% decrease in production. Crude oil realized prices declined to USD60.90 per barrel in 2019, which reflects the decrease in Brent price to USD63.17 per barrels in the first quarter of 2019 from USD66.80 per barrel a year earlier.
Cash used in operations - a key performance metric for the company - totaled USD40,000 versus USD2.6 million cash inflow recorded a year ago on the back of a insurance proceeds relating to the well incident in December 2017.
In Romania, the company said it invested USD1.1 million primarily to complete the construction of the gas plant from which commercial production at the end of April.
In Tunisia, production from the Sabria field continued during the quarter. Production volumes fell to 317 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 380 the year before due to natural production declines from primarily the Win-13 and Win-12 wells in Sabria.
The restart of the Chouech Es Saida field commenced in late first quarter of 2019 and the company plans to undertake a capital investment programme in Sabria which will enhance production and cash flow generation.
Given Serinus' focus on Romania, there was minimal capital expenditure in Tunisia during the quarter, the company said.
Serinus shares were untraded on Thursday, last closing at 13.00 pence each.
Related Shares:
Serinus Energy