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LONDON (Alliance News) - Caracal Energy Inc Monday said its pretax loss widened in its full year 2013 on larger expenses due to the ramp up of production across operations.
The oil and gas exploration and development company said its pretax loss increased to USD84.5 million in 2013 from USD69.4 million in 2012. The company noted that salaries increased to USD21.1 million in 2013 from USD13.1 million in 2012, and finance expenses rose to USD28.9 million from USD8.1 million.
Caracal said it recorded its first full-year income of USD27.2 million, resulting from changes to the value of its oil inventory.
Caracal began trading on the premium list of the London Stock Exchange in July 2013 and started production from its Badila Field in September 2013, exiting the year with gross production of 10,000 barrels of oil per day.
The company said that oil production grew to 14,200 gross barrels of oil per day in March, and it is targeting gross average production in 2012 of 22,000 to 26,000 barrels per day.
Caracal said that full revenue generation started on March 23, with Caracal's first lifting of roughly 560,000 barrels of oil to the company.
The company added that with production from Badila coming on-stream during the fourth quarter of 2013, and with Mangara production targeted for the third quarter of 2014, Caracal's financial strategy for 2014 will be to use its cash flow from operating activities to fund the company's 8 to 10 high-impact exploration drilling prospects.
Caracal Energy shares were up 0.7% to 350.00 pence Monday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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