Lansdowne Oil & Gas still mulling options

Lansdowne Oil & Gas — the Dublin-based junior partner in the Barryroe field in the Celtic Sea — has said its current model remains a viable growth option, despite seeing operating losses widen by 32%.

The company last month announced the launch of a strategic review of its business to include every option from a farm-down or sale of certain assets, to a merger or a complete sale of the company. Earlier this week, Lansdowne’s shares tumbled nearly 20% on the back of Providence Resources reporting higher annual losses and effectively giving no meaningful update on a proposed deal with a development partner for the highly-rated Barryroe field, in which Lansdowne is a 20% stakeholder.

Yesterday, the AIM-listed Lansdowne published its 2014 accounts, which showed an operating loss of £1.3m (€1.8m), for 2014; just over 32% higher than the previous year’s losses of £984,000. Pre-tax losses jumped from £1.02m to £1.32m.