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LONDON (Alliance News) - Kosmos Energy Ltd said Tuesday its first quarter loss widened on movements in its derivatives despite revenue rising and amid "strong and growing" production.
For the three months ended March, the oil & gas company generated a pretax loss of USD74.6 million, up from USD6.7 million in the same period the year before. Revenue at Kosmos decreased to USD127.2 million from USD152.0 million the year before. This is despite revenue from its oil & gas operation increasing to USD127.2 million from USD103.4 million.
Profit performance was hurt after Kosmos reported a USD38.5 million loss related to its oil derivative contracts, this was compared to a USD37.9 million gain the year prior. As of March 31, the company's hedging position had a total commodity net liability value of USD116 million.
The Bermuda-headquartered company's exploration costs decreased to USD21.2 million from USD105.7 million the year before. This was partially offset by a rise in production expenses for the first quarter were up to USD47.8 million from USD19.9 million the year before, this is equivalent to USD24.18 per barrel from USD10.06 per barrel.
At its Ghana operation, Kosmos gross sale volumes averaged about 134,400 barrels of oil per day during the first quarter of 2018.
The company's Equatorial Guinea operation averaged over 47,000 barrels of oil per day of gross oil production - exceeding its full year 2018 forecast of 43,000 barrels of oil per day.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Inglis said: "Kosmos is off to a good start in 2018 across all three areas of our business. Strong and growing production from our high-margin assets in Ghana and Equatorial Guinea continues to generate significant free cash flow, underpinning our solid financial position.
"The Tortue gas development," Inglis added, "which represents the next phase of major production growth for Kosmos, continues to move forward at pace with all FEED contracts now awarded and a clear path to FID around year end. In addition, we have a balanced exploration portfolio with multiple, visible opportunities in proven, emerging, and frontier basins, including two exploration wells offshore Suriname this year."
Kosmos shares were untraded Tuesday but last closed at 510.00 pence each.