Petrel Resources losses widen by 25%

IRISH oil and gas exploration company, Petrel Resources said its full-year loss widened as it awaits payments from a contract on a southern Iraqi oil field.

The pretax loss widened 25% to €518,935 from €415,570 a year earlier, the Dublin-based company said.

Revenue was €28.95 million in the period, Petrel said, without providing a year-earlier comparison figure.

The company said revenue increased owing to the ramping up of the Subba and Luhais Engineering and Production contract.

Petrel has worked in Iraq since 1999 on three projects, the Subba & Luhais EPC project, the Dhufriya technical cooperation agreement and the Block 6 exploration territory in the Western Desert.

The company recently completed the Merjan technical evaluation with its partner Itochu of Japan.

It said while Iraq remains its key focus, the company has an advanced exploration project in Jordan.

“Iraq has vast quantities of quality oil, which can be extracted at low cost.

“Reserves in Iraq are estimated at 115 billion barrels but informed observers expect this figure to rise to 300 billion with exploration — a figure which matches Saudi reserves, the world’s biggest,” the company said yesterday.