LONDON (Alliance News) - JKX Oil & Gas PLC on Friday said higher prices in Ukraine have helped drive strong revenue growth, while it has also swung to a profit.
JKX, which focuses on Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary, posted revenue of USD92.9 million for 2018, 25% higher on the previous year.
This helped it swing to a pretax profit of USD14.0 million, after a loss of USD12.9 million in 2017. Profit was also boosted by lower expenses and a non-repeat of exceptional items.
Ukraine, were most its of revenue comes from, increase the figure by 31% to USD74.9 million, due to higher commodity prices, as well as a rise in group production of 3.1% year-on-year to 8,937 barrels of oil equivalent per day on average.
In Russia, revenue rose 1.1% to USD17.8 million. Assets in Hungary are not yet at the production stage.
Looking forward, first quarter production from the Ukraine has risen 36% year-on-year, averaging 5,015 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and the focus in Russia will be a three-well workover programme.
Cash flow should improve in 2019, JKX added, with the company focused on cost control. Cash flow in 2018 surged to USD37.3 million from USD14.2 million.
Shares were 0.8% lower on Friday at a price of 54.31 pence each.