i3 Energy posts 'solid' set of first-half results

The AIM-traded firm said its net operating income, or revenue less royalties, operational expenditure, processing and transportation, totalled £68.8m for the six months ended 30 June, compared to £12.5m a year earlier.

Cash flow from operations rocketed £48.6m for the period, up from £8m year-on-year.

Looking ahead, i3 said that with the full deployment of its enlarged capital budget, its 2022 net operating income was forecast to be about $200m, driven by recent fluctuations in commodity prices, pricing differentials and inflationary pressures.

That remained $8m above the forecast net operating income of $192m it announced on 12 April, which increased rapidly thereafter to $241m by i3's first quarter operational update on 9 May.

The board said the recent softening in full-year 2022 commodity pricing predictions and expected differentials since May's update resulted in a 9.4% decrease to i3's revenue forecast - around 6% for gas and 3.4% for liquids - while inflationary pressures were predicted to increase costs by 3%.

i3 said it was continuing to employ a defensive risk management strategy with current hedges in place to cover 36% and 22.5% of the company's projected second half and first half of 2023 production volumes, respectively.

“We are very pleased to announce a solid set of results for the first half of the year,” said chief executive officer Majid Shafiq.

“These reflect the hard work of our staff in Canada and the UK in successfully progressing our business plan on all fronts.

“We have made great strides in executing efficiently on our operated drilling program in Canada, with all wells drilled being on prognosis geologically and production contributions now commencing following tie-ins to infrastructure.”

Shafiq said the company was “also very happy” to bring in a partner to the Serenity oil field in the UK, with plans to drill the appraisal well “on track” to spud this month.

“Our operations team continue to perform diligently to maintain our base production volumes, whilst operating safely with no lost time incidents being recorded.

“We also published our inaugural annual environmental, social and governance (ESG) report which set out our commitment to high ESG standards and operating practices.

“Our move to a monthly dividend program reflects our confidence in the stability and resilience of our production assets and we look forward to updating the market over the next quarter as our busy drilling program continues.”

At 1210 BST, shares in i3 Energy were down 2.8% at 24.3p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.