Norwegian oil group DNO saw net profits drop more than 78% for 2013 as charges on its operations in the Middle East hammered fourth-quarter results.
The firm, which is focused on the Middle East and North Africa, posted net profits for 2013 of £22.2million, compared to its £103million profit in 2012.
The downturn came as the company revealed it faced a £85million writedown on two offshore blocks in the United Arab Emirates and a further block off Oman.
DNO revealed it is to build a second pipeline to export oil from its key Tawke field in Kurdistan – which is estimated to contain up to a billion barrels of recoverable oil.
The planned pipeline, which will follow the route of the existing one from the field to the Fish Khabur export centre, comes as the firm looks to increase production from Tawke to 200,000 barrels of oil per day.
“We have an aggressive work program planned for 2014 to drive up production and delivery capacity in existing fields while testing exploration prospects across the portfolio,” said chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
Average production output for the company rose slightly to 39,170 for the year, although lower local sales from Tawke saw fourth quarter production down more than 10,000 barrels per day to 35,896 compared to 2012.