TAG Oil's earnings leap as wells come on-stream

Friday 17th February 2012

Canadian oil and gas producer TAG Oil, which operates onshore Taranaki and is exploring “unconventional” shale field prospect in the eastern North Island, has effectively quadrupled production revenues in the first nine months of the current financial year.

TAG told the Toronto Stock Exchange its production revenue was C$12.98 million in the three months to Dec. 31, and C$26.21 million for the first nine months of the year, compared with C$3.85million and C$8.08 million respectively in the previous financial year.

This reflects production from a range of wells brought to market in recent months, with the company drilling 12 successful wells in a row in its Cheal prospect, onshore Taranaki.

The company said it was now drilling a further two wells at Cheal, and that it was “approaching our first four unconventional wells soon to be drilled in the East Coast Basin,” in partnership with Apache Corporation of Texas.

TAG’s oil production was higher than forecast because of “anomalous recent high rate results” from two of its Cheal wells, and that investment in infrastructure to link the company’s various producing wells together would “allow for drilling success at TAG’s high-impact deep prospects such as Cardiff and Hellfire to accelerate commercialisation in the event of a discovery.”

At Dec. 31, the company remained debt free, with working capital of C$67 million.

Net profit for the nine months was C$10.9 million, before deducting C$5.4 million in non-cash, stock-based compensation.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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