By Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO, July 31 (Reuters) - Oil firm DNO is castingan eye over Exxon Mobil's Norwegian assets as it looksfor more deals after buying London-based peer Faroe earlier thisyear, its executive chairman said on Wednesday.
Exxon Mobil said in June it was seeking bids for its stakesin fields run by other operators on the Norwegian continentalshelf, including Equinor's Snorre oilfield and theShell-operated Ormen Lange gas field.
"After the Faroe acquisition we are looking at more to do.There are assets available in Norway and the UK. We expect toremain active in these markets," DNO's Executive Chairman BijanMossavar-Rahmani told a quarterly result presentation.
He told Reuters later that the company was also looking atthe assets Exxon Mobil is seeking to sell.
"We are looking because that gives us market information,and maybe opportunities (to buy)," he said.
DNO completed its $780 million purchase of Faroe Petroleumin March 2019, and said it had a $574 million cash balance atthe end of the second quarter.
It said it would focus on buying assets which are alreadyproducing or under development as it seeks to increase its NorthSea output to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day (boepd)in 2021 from around 14,692 boepd in the second quarter.
"It's an ambitious target, but it's doable. It could be acombination of organic and non-organic growth," Mossavar-Rahmanitold analysts.
DNO's combined Company Working Interest production in theNorth Sea and the Kurdistan region of Iraq stood at 103,900boepd in the second quarter, up from 74,470 boepd the sameperiod a year ago.
Shares of the Middle East and North Sea-focused company roseby more than 5% on Wednesday after it reported a rise inearnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to$177 million in the second quarter from $105 million in the sameperiod a year ago.
Analysts at brokers DNB Markets and Pareto Securities saidthe result beat their forecasts, partly due to lower thanexpected exploration expenses.
DNO repeated its 2019 capital spending guidance of $375million, and reiterated that spending including explorationwould amount to $440 million.
Its shares were trading up 3.3% at 1032 GMT, outperformingthe wider European oil and gas index, which was up 0.3%.(Editing by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Mark Potter)
