LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Nighthawk Energy PLC rose Monday after the company said its first-half earnings and revenue were driven by an increase in oil production, as it brought more wells into production, including its new Snow King oil discovery in Colorado.
Nighthawk Energy shares were up 5.9% at 9.90 pence Monday morning.
The US-focused oil development and production company reported an operating profit before exceptional administrative expenses of USD14.1 million for the six months to June 30, compared with USD1.3 million in the first half of 2013. It was also up on the USD11.5 million operating profit it reported for the six months to December 31, 2013.
Pretax profit came in at USD8.6 million for the recent half, compared to a USD819,231 pretax loss in the same period a year before.
Revenue increased to USD25.4 million, compared with only USD5.7 million last year, and up from USD20.4 million in the six months to end of December 2013, as the company successfully brought six wells into production.
The company reported gross oil sales of 342,384 barrels in the period, compared with 82,428 barrels in the first half of 2013.
It said average gross oil production increased to 2,062 barrels per day in June, up from 1,556 barrels per day in December 2013.
"The key has been the successful drive to grow production through low cost development drilling in known producing areas and successful de-risked exploration drilling. Nighthawk now has a firm foundation for further growth and the challenge will be to exploit the considerable opportunity across Nighthawk's acreage to deliver the next step up in production from this higher base," said Chairman Stephen Gutteridge in a statement.
Nighthawk Energy said its capital investment in drilling and development came to USD18.8 million in the first half of the year, compared with USD22.4 million for the whole of 2013.
The company said its first-half operating cash-flow increased to USD14.4 million, up from only USD4.7 million last year.
Nighthawk said that, with the drilling of new well locations at Arikaree Creek and Snow King, new structural exploration targets and its first horizontal well all planned, its confident in its outlook for the business.
In a separate statement Monday, the company said it has now completed the agreement for a USD100 million reserve-based lending facility with Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It said it will use the facility to restructure and reduce its current debt, as well as to increase the level of investment in the business and for development.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
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