Chariot Oil & Gas Loss Narrows On Expenses But Drilling Disappoints

LONDON (Alliance News) - Chariot Oil & Gas Ltd on Wednesday said its loss narrowed in 2018 due to a substantial reduction in operating expenses but said its 2018 drilling programme was "disappointing".

Shares in Chariot were down 4.5% at 3.82 pence in afternoon trade.

Chariot's loss before tax in 2018 came to USD15.1 million, declining from USD55.4 million the year before. Its loss for the year was entirely attributable to expenses, as the company is still in its exploratory stages and recorded no revenue during the year.

Within expenses, the most significant change was the drop to a USD10.9 million impairment of an exploration asset, a fraction of its USD51.3 million impairment the year before. The 2017 impairment was caused by Chariot's decision not to enter into the first renewal exploration period of the Southern Blocks in offshore Namibia.

Chariot has oil and gas interests in Brazil, Morocco, and Namibia. Its chief executive, Larry Bottomley, described its 2018 drill programme as "disappointing" as it did not deliver "a giant discovery" but said the programme had shown that Chariot could "attract quality industry partners".

Looking to 2019 so far, Bottomley said: "Chariot has had an exciting start to 2019 with the recent award of the Lixus licence offshore Morocco. The addition of discovered resources rebalances the portfolio providing a near-term development opportunity, low risk exploration upside and ultimately a sustainable footing to continue to pursue our high impact exploration portfolio."

The company is hoping to find strategic partners to assist in the development of the Achois-1 well gas discovery at Lixus during 2019.

The CEO added that: "The shift in balance of risk and reward with the addition of the Lixus licence fulfils the company's goal of seeking an opportunity to generate cash flow. We now have a diversified inventory of giant, high margin, high risk prospects complemented by a high value, low risk, low cost gas appraisal project in an emerging gas market supported by a growing energy demand."