LONDON (Alliance News) - Columbus Energy Resources PLC said on Thursday its interim loss widened largely due to costs in Spain, as it looks to progress its Goudron operations and Steeldrum Oil Company Inc transaction over the remainder of the year.
Revenue over the six months to June 30 rose 47% to GBP3.6 million as the company's pretax loss widened to GBP2.5 million from GBP2.0 million last year.
This was largely due to exceptional costs in Spain, the company said, totalling GBP637,000.
Columbus described its issues in Spain as a "continual source of frustration" due to the "slow pace" at which the authorities have moved at to progress the formal extinction of the La Lora concessionand, subsequently, to prepare for the issue of a new tender for the licence.
As a result, the Columbus had to make "the difficult decision" to make 14 staff redundant in the first quarter of 2018 and took action to reduce the burn-rate in Spain to around EUR15,000 per month, mainly to meet ongoing "care and maintenance obligations" at the suspended Ayoluengo Field.
Looking ahead, the company sad it will continue to undertake an ongoing programme of activities at its Goudron operations, south eastern onshore Trinidad, to achieve sustained production growth.
"Water injection is the next material step towards real and sustained production growth at Goudron and the additional water now available through the dedicated drilling campaign in 1H 2018 will now allow additional pilots to commence in the second half 2018," said Columbus.
Completion of the Steeldrum Oil Company Inc transaction is also a priority in the second half, hoped that this can be achieved early in the fourth quarter of 2018.
"The Columbus/Steeldrum group will have six production/development assets to optimise and grow production from. This will de-risk the Company's reliance on Goudron for both future production and cashflow growth," the company said.
Shares in Columbus were down 0.9% at 4.015 pence on Thursday.