Dragon Oil H1 profits up by one third

Independent oil development and production company, Dragon Oil, has today announced profits grew in the first half of the year by 31%.

The company posted a profit of $137.6 million for the six months ended June, against a $105.0 million profit in the same period a year earlier.

Revenues, meanwhile, grew 4.9% to $276.3 million from $263.5 million a year earlier.

Average daily oil production rose to 46,420 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in the six-month period, compared with 42,808 bpd in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the company said discussions with the Turkmenistan Government regarding commercialisation of gas resources are ongoing.

Commenting on the figures, Dragon Oil’s chief executive, Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa, said: “In the first half of 2010 we have continued to focus on driving production growth forward and investing in infrastructure to ensure we have the capacity to support this objective in the years ahead.

“We have employed a total of four rigs this year, with two of these continuing to operate on a full-time basis. In addition to the objective of completing 11 development wells by year end, we have also completed three workovers and one sidetrack to date as part of our drilling programme for 2010.”

Dr Al Khalifa concluded on a positive note and said: “We remain confident in our outlook for the rest of the year.”