LONDON (Alliance News) - Ithaca Energy Inc on Tuesday said it swung to a pretax loss in 2014 as its revenue was hit by the falling oil price in the second half of the year and as it booked a massive impairment charge.
Ithaca said its pretax loss for the year was USD332.5 million, compared with a USD40.2 million profit a year earlier. The loss was driven by a USD441.5 million impairment charge taken by the company related to the lower oil price.
Revenue fell to USD378.6 million from USD413.9 million, as a rise in production to 10,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 10,400 barrels a year earlier was offset by a fall in its average realised price per barrel to USD97 from USD107.
But Ithaca said its production has increased to more than 12,500 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2015, in line its its full year production guidance of 12,000 per day. It added its operating costs have been brought down to around USD40 per barrel in the first quarter, with scope to further reduce these costs.
The company added the development drilling programme at the Stella project in the North Sea is close to completion, with work on schedule for the first production from the site in the second quarter of 2016.
Shares in Ithaca were up 7.2% to 34.315 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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