18th Jul 2014 07:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sterling Energy PLC Friday said its pretax profit declined slightly in its first half as a drop in revenues due to field decline and scheduled maintenance at its Chinguetti oil field in Mauritania hit the company.
The oil and gas exploration and production company said its pretax profit fell to USD1.7 million for the six months ended June 30 from USD1.8 million the previous year, as revenues fell 15% to USD9.1 million from USD10.6 million.
The company said its revenues fell as average net production fell 18% to 436 barrels of oil per day from 534 barrels of oil per day due to natural field decline at the Chinguetti field and a scheduled 10 day maintenance programme which started in January.
Sterling Energy said its EBITDA for the period fell 11% to USD4.7 million from USD5.3 million.
However, the company did manage to reduce their losses after receiving lower finance costs, exchange losses and administrative expenses during the period.
Sterling Energy said it has no debt, and its net cash was USD110.9 million at June 30.
The news comes after Sterling Energy announced in April that drilling at its key Bamboo-1 well at the Ntem Concession, offshore Cameroon, had failed to find commercial levels of oil and gas before being plugged and abandoned.
In May, the company said it had been granted a two-year extension to its current work period on its Odewayne production sharing contract by the government of Somaliland. The decision was made after the Somaliland government decided to establish a new Oilfield Protection Unit, which allows future seismic and drilling operations in the war-torn state to be carried out safely, incurring delays in the development programme on site.
On Friday, Sterling Energy said it is moving forward with a 3D seismic programme on the Ambilobe block in Madagascar which should start during 2014. It said the costs for the programme can be up to a maximum of USD15 million but are carried by its joint venture partner on site Pura Vida Mauritius.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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