LONDON (Alliance News) - SacOil Holdings Ltd Tuesday said it continued to make steady progress in its aim to become a pan-African oil and gas company, despite significant headwinds in the industry, as it reported a swing to a pretax profit in its most recently ended financial year.
The South Africa-based oil and gas company reported a pretax profit of ZAR100 million in the year to end-February, swung from a pretax loss of ZAR249.9 million, on revenue of ZAR4.7 million, up from ZAR2.1 million the year before, mostly as a result of hefty impairment charges and write downs in relation to the restructuring of its portfolio of assets in the previous year.
SacOil said it had continued to benefit from the weakening rand, which contributed ZAR154.6 million in foreign exchange gains on its US denominated financial assets.
The company focused on completing phase 2 development of the Lagia oil field in Egypt during the year, which it dud successfully, reaching its targeting production of 1,000 barrels per day.
The company said it has since scaled back its production to levels more suitable for the current oil price environment.
Having been granted a two year extension to exploration on the Block III in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the operator of the block has begun with the acquisition of a 2D data seismic survey.
SacOil said it continues to make good progress in implementing its strategic plan, but challenges that exist in the sector are likely to continue over the next year that will require it to continue to operate effectively at a lower oil price.
"The 2016 financial year was characterised by operational and strategic progress against a challenging sector backdrop. It was a year in which we demonstrated our ability to deliver on core operational objectives and evolved further towards our strategic goal of becoming a pan-African oil and gas company with activities across the full industry value chain," said Chief Executive Officer Thabo Kgogo in a statement.
Shares in SacOil were up 10% at 0.910 pence Tuesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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