RAK Petroleum reports lower first-half profit

RAK Petroleum on Thursday said its consolidated first-half profit fell to $2.8 million versus the $6.9 million it recorded during the same period of last year.
The Oslo-listed company’s balance sheet meanwhile improved, as cash generated from its operating activities topped $211.5 million as of end-June compared with $20.9 million last year. Total cash and cash equivalents stood at $15.9 million while the company’s indebtedness was pegged at $32.7 million.
Despite the decline in RAK Petroleum’s profitability, executive chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani was optimistic the successful military campaigns in Iraq – where its subsidiary Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO has operations – should improve the outlook for the company.
“The successful military campaigns in northern and western Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the settlement agreement signed by DNO and the KRG … reduce the risk to DNO with respect to recovery of its receivables and improve the overall oil and gas investment climate in Kurdistan,” Mossavar-Rahmani said in his report to stockholders.
RAK Petroleum controls a 40 percent stake in DNO and a 33 percent interest in Foxtrot International, a privately held exploration and production company.
DNO is currently the most active driller among global operators in Kurdistan, holding a license for Tawke and Peshkabir fields, which together produce over 110,000 barrels of oil per day, and another for the Benenan and Bastora heavy oilfields.
The company recently assumed operatorship of the Baeshiqa license in Kurdistan with a 40 percent paying interest, acquiring one-half of ExxonMobil’s position.
Foxtrot International meanwhile supplies more than 70 percent of Ivory Coast’s gas through its offshore Foxtrot and Mahi fields in the Gulf of Guinea. It also is the operator and 27.5 percent stakeholder in Block CI-502, an offshore exploration license acquired in 2014.