LONDON (Alliance News) - Amerisur Resources PLC Thursday said its pretax loss widened in the first half of 2016 as revenue almost halved, but said it had made strong progress in gearing up operations.
The oil and gas producer reported revenue of USD24.4 million for the six months ended June 30, down from USD40.3 million the prior year, which it said resulted from the lower oil price environment and the planned reduction in production.
Average production for the six months was 2,642 barrels of oil per day, against 4,524 barrels of oil per day for the comparable period a year earlier.
Amerisur Resources said there was a modest improvement in realised oil prices when comparing the first half of 2016 to the second half of 2015, to USD35.7 per barrel from USD34.45 per barrel. However, this was "still substantially lower" than the USD50.58 per barrel achieved in the first half of the prior year.
As such, the company's pretax loss widened to USD6.8 million in the half from USD5.8 million the prior year.
Amerisur Resources said, however, much ground work was made to diversify the portfolio as well as to gear up operations for the commissioning of its Oleoducto Binacional Amerisur pipeline in Ecuador. The company said it has an "active work programme" in the second half and is expecting an exit production rate of 7,200 barrels of oil per day.
Meanwhile, Amerisur Resources pointed to the peace process in Colombia which it said was nearing completion and was "particularly important" to the company. This should facilitate its operations in Putumayo and the country as whole, enabling it to realise the value of its portfolio in the area.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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