RAK Petroleum, the Oslo-listed oil and gas investment company, has announced a consolidated net comprehensive income of $65.7 million for the half-year to 30th June, 2019, compared to $166.4 million for 2018.

RAK Petroleum’s main assets are holdings in DNO, also listed in Oslo, and privately-held Foxtrot International.

RAK Petroleum owns 40.45 per cent of DNO, a Norwegian company focused on the Middle East and European North Sea, and 33.33 per cent of Foxtrot International, whose major asset is a share in a gas-producing block offshore Ivory Coast in West Africa.

Announcing the results, RAK Petroleum Executive Chairman and DNO and Foxtrot Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahman said the company’s bank debt was $18.4 million, drawn from a lending arrangement with a leading bank in the UAE.

Net equity to June 30, 2019 stood at $871.2 million compared to $835.5 million on December 31, 2018, he stated.

DNO achieved oil and gas output of 130,855 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half of 2019 on a gross basis, compared to 110,570 boepd during the same period last year, maintaining its position as the largest oil producer among the international oil companies in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Operated production in Kurdistan climbed 20 percent to 126,648 barrels of oil per day in the first half of 2019 compared to 105,962 bopd in the same period a year earlier.

Its largest field in Kurdistan, Tawke, which is also the largest field in the region operated by an international oil company, averaged 71,700 bopd, with the Peshkabir field, the second largest IOC-operated field in Kurdistan, averaging 54,950 bopd in the first half of the year.

On DNO's results, Mossavar-Rahman said: "With record activity levels, rising revenues, strong profitability and a material contribution from the North Sea, DNO ramped up operational activity with 14 wells spud in the first half of 2019 as it continues to deliver the largest drilling programme in its 48-year history."

In the North Sea, DNO has interests in 89 licences in Norwegian waters, 12 in the UK North Sea and two offshore the Netherlands, as well as one in Ireland, stated the top official.

RAK Petroleum working interest production from fields in the Norwegian and UK licences amounted to 17,820 bpd in the first half of the year, Mossavar-Rahman said.

In the first half of 2019, the company received $14.9 million in cash distributions from Foxtrot International, $3 million of which were reinvested towards maintenance, operating and other expenditures, he added.-TradeArabia News Service