UAE-linked Norwegian oil and gas operator, DNO ASA, has reported interim 2019 revenues of $971 million, the highest in the company's 48-year history, on the back of acquisitions and a record drilling campaign, with a 28 percent year-on-year increase in company working interest (CWI) production to 104,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

Net profit last year stood at $74 million. The company’s largest shareholder is RAK Petroleum, reported Emirates news agency Wam.

DNO exited 2019 with a cash balance of $486 million and $145 million in marketable securities. The cash balance excludes two delayed export payments totalling $107 million net to DNO received earlier this year from the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Last month, DNO completed a buyback programme, costing $129 million, to acquire 108,381,415 of its own shares. An Extraordinary General Meeting has been called for later this month to seek shareholder approval to cancel these shares.

The company’s Board of Directors plans to approve distribution of the next semi-annual dividend of NOK0.20 ($0.021) per share in March.

Last year, DNO carried out its largest ever annual drilling programme with 36 wells drilled or spudded across its portfolio, of which 24 were development/infill and 12 exploration/appraisal wells. Planned operational spend (capital and exploration expenditures plus lifting costs) will remain high in 2020 at $650 million.

In Kurdistan, gross production from the two fields in the DNO-operated Tawke licence climbed to 124,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in 2019 (87,400 bopd CWI), up from 113,100 bopd in 2018 (79,700 bopd CWI). Average production of 122,800 bopd in the fourth quarter of 2019 was up 3,000 bopd from the previous quarter.

In November 2019, the company reported a discovery in its operated Baeshiqa licence, with the well now undergoing a workover prior to resumption of acid stimulation and testing of remaining reservoirs to assess commerciality.

Through its acquisition of UK-listed Faroe Petroleum plc, the Company added North Sea production of 17,400 boepd in 2019. Average production of 19,000 boepd in the fourth quarter of 2019 was up 4,100 boepd from the previous quarter.

The company was awarded 10 licences in Norway’s Awards in Predefined Areas, APA, 2019 licensing round, adding to the 87 licences already held in Norway and 15 across the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Ireland. Of these licences, 28 are on production (13 fields) and the balance in various stages of evaluation, exploration and development.

DNO ASA, founded in 1971 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, currently holds stakes in onshore and offshore licences at various stages of exploration, development and production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Norway, the UK, Netherlands, Ireland and Yemen.