RAK Petroleum’s Ivory Coast gas output up 17 per cent

The West Africa asset is one of RAK Petroleum’s two main properties through a one-third stake in its operator Foxtrot International.

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RAK Petroleum said gas output at its offshore Ivory Coast asset is up 17 per cent from last year, after it completed an US$850 million, four-year development programme.

The West Africa asset is one of RAK Petroleum’s two main properties via a 33.33 per cent stake in operator Foxtrot International. Its other asset is a stake of slightly more than 40 per cent in DNO, an Oslo-listed company, the main asset of which is its operatorship of the Tawke oilfield, one of the largest in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Foxtrot owns 24 per cent of Block CI-27 offshore Ivory Coast, one of the country’s largest.

After the latest development, gas production has risen to an average of 170 million cubic feet per day, up from 145 million cfd last year, meeting 75 per cent of the country’s needs.

Output of oil and gas condensate from the block has more than doubled from last year, RAK said, to 3,000 barrels per day from 1,140 bpd.

Gas is sold at a current price of $6 per million British thermal unit and liquids are sold at international market prices.

Last month, RAK said its share of Foxtrot’s first-half profit was $7.9m after depletion, same as last year’s first half result. It said it received $11.4m in cash distributions from Foxtrot and reinvested $8.5m towards capital and operating expenditures in the first six months of the year. RAK values its shareholding in Foxtrot at $99m.

RAK also last month said its share of DNO’s first-half loss was $400,000. It said the end-June market value of its DNO stake was $487m, versus a carrying value on its books of $531m, reflecting the original cost of the stake. DNO made a $300m bid in July for Gulf Keystone, which also is an operator in the Kurdish region.

RAK’s Oslo-listed shares were down nearly 10 per cent yesterday, or 0.79, at 7.21 Norwegian kroner. The shares have traded in a range of 4.81 kroner to 11.45 kroner in the past year.

amcauley@thenational.ae

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