(Alliance News) - Phoenix Global Resources PLC on Friday said its first half earnings were hurt by lower oil & gas prices and reduced sales volumes.
The oil & gas company said pretax loss widened to USD43.0 million in the six months to the end of June from USD30.8 million loss reported a year earlier, as revenue declined by 26% to USD68.6 million from USD92.9 million.
The reduction in revenue resulted from a combination of a lower realised prices and a reduction in sales volumes, the AIM-listed firm explained. The average realised oil sales price in the six months to June 30 was USD52.23 a barrel, a 13% decline on the average price of USD60.34 per barrel observed in the first half of 2018. For gas, average realised sales price declined to USD3.45 per million cubic feet from USD4.20 a million cubic feet a year earlier.
Average daily oil sales in the period were 6,312 barrels of oil per day compared to 7,467 barrels of oil a day in the first half of 2018. The majority of the reduction in oil sales was observed at the Neuquina basin in Argentina and resulted from natural decline not offset by production from new wells.
During the period, Phoenix said it put first two unconventional horizontal wells at Mata Mora in Argentina online, with production rates of up to 1,000 barrels of oil per day per well in initial testing.
"We are encouraged by the initial results from the company's first two horizontal unconventional wells at Mata Mora," said Chief Operating Officer Javier Vallesi.
"In addition to the progress made at Mata Mora, our work at Puesto Rojas continues following the award of the first ever unconventional development concession in Mendoza province," added Vallesi.
Phoenix has drilled four unconventional vertical wells of an eight-well programme targeting the folded Agrio formation and expects the completions of the campaign later in the year.
The stock was untraded in London on Friday, last closing at 9.76 pence a share.