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LONDON (Alliance News) - Curzon Energy PLC said on Friday its interim loss narrowed slightly as it continues to progress the Coos Bay project, with wells yet to achieve necessary commercial gas production rates.
Curzon posted a pretax loss of USD530,990 for the six months to June 30 compared to USD652,670 a year ago.
"A majority of this loss comprised expenditures in relation to the ongoing evaluation of the commercial potential of its Coos Bay CBM project," the company said.
Administrative expenses totalled USD511,951 versus USD495,470 a year before, though finance costs fell to USD31,893 from USD45,818. The company received a foreign exchange gain of USD12,854 in the period compared to a loss of USD48,818 last year.
As part of the Coos Bay evaluation process, Curzon re-perforated select existing completions and made new perforations in the wells in order to open all identified gas bearing coal seams and accelerate gas production rates to commercial quantities.
"While certain wells are showing gradual increased gas production rates, the wells have not yet achieved commercial gas production rates that would enable us to connect and sell gas into the nearby regional pipeline," said Curzon.
Of the five wells, the 1-21 well has shown the most promise to date, said Curzon.
However, the location of the pump in the 1-21 well is thought to be too shallow, and is preventing sufficient removal of the water required to open and exploit all perforated zones.
Curzon's near-term focus is to continue evaluating the commerciality of the Coos Bay CBM project - with the company mulling alternative strategies to accelerate development of the assets - and to evaluate additional opportunities in the US gas sector that have attractive revenue potential.
Shares in Curzon were down 19% at 4.03 pence on Friday.