(Alliance News) - United Oil & Gas PLC on Friday said its loss widened in 2019 as administrative expenses increased on the impairment of assets and acquisition costs.
For the year, the oil & gas firm reported a pretax loss of GBP2.0 million, widened from GBP1.1 million the year before.
United Oil & Gas booked a GBP2.1 million impairment of the Colter intangible exploration asset, plus GBP1.2 million combined in costs associated with the acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt and its 22% interest in the Abu Sennan concession onshore Egypt and with United Oil & Gas's move to London's AIM from the Main Market.
Rockhopper Egypt was purchased from Rockhopper Exploration PLC for USD16 million, with the acquisition completed in February of this year.
In addition to this, United Oil & Gas continued progress in securing the environmental and legal permitting for the Selva gas development project in Italy, with the objective of first gas in early 2021.
Looking ahead, since the end of 2019, the Abu Sennan asset has performed well, with production from the ASH-2 well remaining above 3,000 barrels of oil per day, United Oil & Gas said.
"I am pleased with the significant progress that the company has made throughout 2019. At the beginning of the year we outlined our intention to complete a transformative acquisition and to build a full cycle oil and gas company. We have achieved both goals with the Rockhopper acquisition, which has already exceeded expectations," said Chief Executive Officer Brian Larkin.
"Covid-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to our world and to our industry. United's management has acted quickly to protect our business and to ensure that our strategy is appropriate to these circumstances. While we are currently adopting a prudent approach, this is with the objective of ensuring that we maintain a pipeline of opportunities for future development and emerge from this challenging time in a position to take advantage of opportunities which may arise," Larkin added.
Shares in United Oil & Gas were down 3.7% at 1.95 pence on Friday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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