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LONDON (Alliance News) - SEPLAT Petroleum Development Co PLC Friday said its pretax profit fell in its first-half as lower revenues due to production downtimes and higher charges hit the company.
The Nigerian oil and gas company, which listed in London on April 14, said its pretax profit during the six months ended June 30 fell 26% to USD156.0 million from USD210.5 million in the previous year.
The company said revenues fell 7.5% to USD388.2 million from USD419.4 million due mainly to 45 days of downtime during the first-half at Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Trans Forcados Pipeline for repairs.
SEPLAT was also hit by a USD83.4 million general and administrative expense along with a finance charge of USD21.6 million due to a bank loan during the period.
The company said its working interest production increased during the period to 27,375 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 27,183 barrels, with a 7.9% fall in oil production due to the unplanned downtime being more than offset by a 37% increase in gas production.
"Seplat performed well during the first half of 2014. Although production in the period was impacted by the shutdown of third party infrastructure, we continue to drive growth - excluding the shut-in days, our gross daily average production from OMLs 4, 38 and 41 was over 60,000 barrels," Chief Executive Austin Avuru said in a statement.
"We plan to have up to seven drilling rigs actively engaged, and are progressing plans at a fast pace to develop our oil and gas reserves and increase production, aiming to build momentum through the second half and into 2015," Avuru added.
SEPLAT said its full-year average working interest production is expected to be between 23,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil per day and between 38 and 45 million cubic feet per day of gas.
The company left the period at a strong financial position with cash at bank of USD580 million along with net debt of USD48 million.
SEPLAT shares were down 0.8% at 242.00 pence on Friday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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