JKX Oil & Gas reports 14% yoy income drop in 1H12

JKX Oil & Gas’ (JKX LN) underlying net income fell 14% yoy to USD 20.7 mln, the company reported yesterday. The company’s net loss reached USD 5.1 mln due to a one-off non-cash depreciation charge of USD 30.7 mln on the company’s Ukrainian assets. Despite a 21% yoy drop in average production to 7,481 boepd (broadly expected: see our news on July 16) and even higher drop in hydrocarbon sales (-30% yoy to 6,644 boepd), the company’s revenues slid only 4.4% yoy to USD 103.0 mln in 1H12. Natural gas tariff growth of 37% yoy partially offset the output declines.

Roman Dmytrenko: JKX should show better 2H12 results in terms of production, mainly on the start of operations at its Russian wells. The side-tracking of the company’s blocked W-27 well in the Koshekhablskoye field in Russia was completed at the end of July. The well is expected to be put on-stream by the end of August, with unblockage of W-20 and W-25 wells to follow shortly. We note, however, that Russian output growth will have a negative effect on JKX’s total profitability and only a minor positive effect on its bottom line, as average gas prices in Russia are 4x smaller than in Ukraine.