Hurricane Energy’s underlying pre-tax loss widens in H1

Hurricane Energy plc (LON: HUR) said on Friday that its revenue in the first six months of the current fiscal year was higher than last year. But Lancaster field related write-downs still resulted in the company swinging to a broader loss in the fiscal first half.

Shares of the company slid roughly 30% in premarket trading on Friday. The stock continued its decline and lost another 30% on market open. At 3.12 pence a share, Hurricane Energy is now 90% down year to date in the stock market. Confused about choosing a reliable stockbroker to trade online? Here’s a list of a top few to make the selection easier for you.

Hurricane Energy reports £64.03 million of revenue

In the six months that concluded in June, Hurricane Energy posted £31.43 million of underlying pre-tax loss. In the same period last year, it had recorded £3.13 million of profit instead. On the revenue front, the company saw a significant increase from £17.59 million in the comparable period of 2019 to £64.03 million in H1.

In related news, Hurricane Energy named Anthony Maris as its new executive director and CEO last month.

The oil and gas company valued write-downs attributed to its Lancaster field impairment at £186.78 million on Friday. Lancaster EPS (early production system) production, it highlighted, had been reduced from 37.3 million barrels to 16.0 million barrels.

According to Hurricane Energy, the Lancaster oil water contact that was estimated at up to 1,678 metres in 2017 now stands at 1,330 metres.

Hurricane Energy’s remarks on Friday

In its statement on Friday, Hurricane Energy said:

“Our near-term priority is further technical work to refine an activity plan for Lancaster, which we expect to be finalised by the end of this year and executed in 2021.”

From September to December, the Godalming-based company forecasts, Lancaster EPS production will fall between 12 thousand to 14 thousand BPD (barrels per day) of oil. Hurricane Energy also said on Thursday:

“Lower oil prices and reduced production expectations will negatively impact anticipated future cash flows, despite the expected reduction and deferral of licence commitment well spending.”

Hurricane Energy performed fairly downbeat in the stock market last year with an annual decline of about 25%. At the time of writing, it has a market cap of £62.42 million and a price to earnings ratio of 2.41.