Valiant Petroleum, which is 100%-focused on the UK North Sea, said yesterday it remained positive about its business outlook in respect of its portfolio of assets and the potential for growth by acquisition.
It said it had achieved its first revenue of £3.39million in the half year to June 30 from the sale of first production from the Don fields north-east of Shetland. Valiant has a 17.275% interest in West Don and a 40% stake in Don Southwest.
The company reported half-year profits of £7.88million yesterday following losses in 2008 of £36.15million.
It said its profits were thanks to £3.03million in foreign-exchange gains and £7.17million in deferred tax.
Valiant said it expected to exit 2009 with production of around 10,000 barrels of oil per day.
It added that in addition to working on further opportunities around the Don fields it would work with partners to bring forward other undeveloped assets such as Banquo, Helena and Causeway, also north-east of Shetland, and Crawford, in the central North Sea.
Meanwhile, UK-listed oil and gas operator Regal Petroleum reported wider first-half net losses but said it anticipated a better performance next year after overcoming funding problems by raising £63.4million in a share placing.
The group posted net losses of £4.59million for the six months to June 30 compared with £3.19million a year earlier, while turnover grew by 30% to £5.26million.
Regal, which has interests in Ukraine, Egypt and Romania, said it saw output increasing to more than 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boepd) by the year-end, from 1,170boepd in the first half.
Marathon Oil said yesterday it had begun production at the Volund field in Norwegian waters, and expected the field to reach peak oil production of about 25,000 barrels per day.
It said the timing of that would be subject to the processing capacity of the Alvheim floating production vessel to which it is tied back. The Alvheim production vessel is currently producing 140,000 barrels per day, about 20,000 barrels per day above its rated capacity.
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