(Alliance News) - United Oil & Gas PLC on Tuesday said profit fell in the first half of 2023 as revenue also fell, while it plans further exploration work in the future.
In the six months that ended June 30, the London-based oil and gas company with projects in Egypt, Italy and the UK said pretax profit dropped 68% to USD1.8 million from USD5.7 million a year earlier.
This was due to revenue falling 35% to USD6.4 million from USD9.8 million, while other income fell 65% to USD1.2 million from USD3.4 million.
United Oil & Gas noted that the realised oil price at June 30 was USD78.19 per barrel, down sharply from USD105.50 per barrel.
"We are pleased to be able to report progress across our portfolio as we seek to explore further opportunities for growth to deliver greater value to our shareholders," said Chief Executive Officer Brian Larkin.
"We enter the last quarter of 2023 well placed, and will continue to work hard on delivering on our strategy in order to return value to our shareholders."
In Egypt, United Oil & Gas said it expects to spud regarding drilling the ASD-S-1X near field exploration well, targeting an estimated gross in-place mean volume of 10.1 million barrels of oil in multiple stacked reservoir targets across the productive Abu Roash and Bahariya reservoirs.
This will be followed by additional development drilling on the Abu Sennan concession, which it said will likely target an undrained crestal area that has been identified on the Ash field.
In Jamaica, United Oil & Gas said it continues discussions with "high-quality potential partners", expecting to begin commercial discussions with a preferred party over the coming weeks. It said it will provide further updates "in due course".
In the UK, United Oil & Gas said it is looking to complete the transaction with Quattro Energy Ltd on the P2519 licence containing the Maria discovery. Last month, it said it extended the long stop date of the planned UK Central North Sea licence sale to Saturday.
Shares in United Oil & Gas were up 1.7% to 0.89 pence each in London on Thursday late morning.
By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News reporter
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United Oil&gas (UOG)