LONDON (Alliance News) - Bankers Petroleum Ltd Tuesday said production and sales fell quarter on quarter, and said the average sale price also fell in the first quarter, slightly offset by substantial gains made through the company's hedging programme.
The oil company operating in Albania said production from the Patos-Marinza and Kuçova oilfields averaged 19,767 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first quarter of 2015, down 2.7% from the fourth quarter of 2014 when it was producing 20,324 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Oil sales in the first quarter averaged 20,284 barrels of oil per day, 1.6% lower than the previous quarter when it sold an average of 20,619 barrels of oil per day. The company's crude oil inventory fell in the period to 270,000 barrels at the end of March, from 315,500 barrels at the end of December.
However, the fall in sales was alongside a significant drop in the achieved oil price in the period. Oil from the Patos Marinza field was sold for an average of USD39.65 per barrel compared to USD57.31 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2014. Bankers said it did make a USD14.1 million gain in the first quarter thanks to its hedging of 6,000 barrels of oil per day at a price of USD80 per barrel.
Bankers said it drilled two wells in the Bubullima reservoir sands on the Patos Marinza field in the period, which achieved a combined production rate of around 200 barrels of oil per day over a 30-day period. Bankers said it will drill an additional two or three wells on the same area of the field in 2015.
Bankers also drilled a total of 21 wells on the main area of the Patos Marinza field in the period. At the end of March, 17 of the wells were producing and the remaining four are awaiting completion.
In early February, the company said it had to shut in 81 wells in the northern and central area of the Patos Marinza field due to severe flooding, but said all the wells were back online by the middle of the month, with most of them returning to previous production rates.
Bankers Petroleum shares were down 7.5% to 138.80 pence per share on Tuesday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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