LONDON (Alliance News) - Xcite Energy Ltd Friday said its pretax loss widened in the first quarter of 2015 as it continues to focus on developing the Bentley field in the UK North Sea after receiving an updated reserve report in the quarter.
The heavy oil appraisal and development company focused on the UK North Sea reported a pretax loss of USD451,000 for the first quarter of 2015, widening from a USD64,000 loss a year earlier. The loss widened after the company made a USD791,000 gain on foreign exchange in the first quarter of 2014 that was not repeated in the period.
The absence of the foreign exchange gain was partially offset by administrative expenses falling to USD464,000 from USD871,000.
At the end of March, Xcite had a cash balance of USD41.0 million.
Xcite reported an increase in its Bentley oilfield reserves in the quarter, with 1P, 2P and 3P heavy oil reserves for the field increasing to 234 million, 265 million and 296 million stock tank barrels respectively. Xcite said the 1P, 2P and 3P reserves have a net present value after tax of around USD1.9billion, USD2.3 billion and USD2.6 billion respectively.
"The reserves report is significant for us, as it incorporates much of the work we have completed over the past year with the development group, providing external validation to the recovery of the field, the development plan and execution strategy," said Chief Executive Rupert Cole.
"Full field un-escalated costs are expected to be approximately USD35 per barrel have been underpinned by third party quotes and estimates in order to increase the visibility of the robust economics of this development plan for the Bentley project. We remain focused on developing the funding required to crystallise value from this asset," he added.
Xcite shares fell 1% to 37.38 pence per share on Friday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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