LONDON (Alliance News) - Bankers Petroleum Ltd on Thursday said it incurred heavy losses in the first half of 2016, after its average realised price per barrel almost halved and production continued to fall.
The company, which produces in Albania and in eastern Europe, reported a pretax loss of USD62.6 million for the six months ended June 30, widened from a USD16.0 million loss a year earlier, as revenue halved to USD70.1 million from USD158.1 million in 2015. It had almost halved as well a year earlier, falling from USD265.5 million in 2014.
Production was down at 16,649 barrels of oil per day for the recent six months compared to 19,909 barrels of oil per day for the same period a year earlier, leading to sales of 16,152 barrels per day at an average price of USD25.20 per barrel, compared to the 19,953 barrels per day at an average price of USD43.78 per barrel a year earlier.
For the first half of 2015, both production and average realised price were down on the previous year.
Netback fell to USD5.39 per barrel, down from USD18.38 per barrel a year earlier, and the cash margin squeezed to USD8.84 per barrel from USD26.39 per barrel.
Capital expenditure for the first half of 2016 fell to USD20.0 million from USD38.0 million, Bankers Petroleum said, noting that it did not drill any wells during its second quarter.
Bankers Petroleum said production in its third quarter to date was an average of 15,353 barrels of oil per day, 3.0% behind the second quarter, and said it was focused on the optimisation of current production levels, monitoring the economic return of all wells in accordance with the current oil price environment.
For the third quarter, Bankers Petroleum said its infrastructure and facilities projects include commissioning the inlet system and vapor recovery unit at satellite facility Pad D, vapor recovery unit at Pad H, and the west emulsion gathering system. The company is also looking to design and implement a soil oil treating project aimed at sweetening sour production from various reservoir zones.
Bankers Petroleum said is in talks for potential domestic crude oil sales contracts for a portion of its volumes and expects to receive equivalent pricing to the export market after accounting for reduced transportation and export related fees.
Shares in Bankers Petroleum were untraded on Thursday, having last traded at 119.00 pence.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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