Ascent Resources declares itself debt-free as Slovenian development continues

Ascent Resources, the Slovenia-focused oil and gas explorer, reported revenues for the first time since 2013 as it coninutes to develop its primary target in the former Yugoslavian country and cut debt significantly to less than £50,000 since the end of the period.

Revenue for the period ended 30 June 2017 totalled £154,000 mainly from hydrocarbon sales in Slovenia.

During that period, an additional charge of £115,000 was made to cost of sales bringing the gross margin to zero as
"production during the period is considered 'test' production".

The AIM-listed company also raised £2.99m of new funds before costs in February via an equity issue on the PrimaryBid platform.

Additionally, the company said it managed to reduce borrowings by £7m over the past 12 months which it said edged £4m since the beginning of the year, with £6m coming via loan note conversions, and said further conversions post-period had reduced the amount of outstanding notes to less than £50,000.

In light of these results, the board said it now looked forward to "continued development".

"We look forward to the continued development of the Petišovci field. Wells Pg-10 and Pg-11A are intended to prove the commerciality of the field and the significant reserves and resources contained within".

It also planned to grow independent of the IPPC permit and expand operations into new territories.

"While we anticipate receiving the IPPC permit to construct our own processing facility in due course this is no longer as important to the dompany. We have refurbished the existing infrastructure to give ourselves room to grow independent of the IPPC Permit.

"We are in a strong position to look to expand our operations into new territories", said the board.