Australian oil and gas, upstream exploration company Global Petroleum today reports a widening of first half pre-tax losses to £1.54million.
The latest trading deficit comes after losses of just over £1million a year earlier.
Global, which is currently focused on on Africa and the Mediterranean, said the “drastic” fall in oil prices over the past few months vindicated its strategy of being highly selective about potential additions to its asset portfolio.
It added: “We have reviewed an extremely large number of opportunities over the last two years.
“The variable quality of the assets available is underlined by the length of time for which many of them have been on the market.
“Over the reporting period there has been a further significant increase in the number of companies which are seeking solutions for assets which are starved of finance.
“This is unsurprising in a period when it is very challenging for small-cap E&P (exploration and production) companies to raise either debt or equity, and we do not expect this to improve any time soon.
“Many of our peers find themselves in financial difficulties, having utilised their available funds in high-risk exploration which the statistics show has been largely unsuccessful over the last two to three years.
“The fact that we have maintained our relative financial strength in relation to our peers puts us in a good position to profit from the new market realities, whether by asset acquisition or via corporate combination.”
Global, which targets “under-explored blocks in highly prospective offshore basins”, said cash balances at December 31 stood at £9.45million. The company had no debt.
Its main assets are exploration blocks located offshore Namibia and offshore Juan de Nova Island, a French territory in the Mozambique Channel.
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