(RTTNews) - Thursday, oil and gas exploration and production company Meridian Petroleum Plc (MRP.L: News ), reported a loss for the first half-year ended June 30, as reveues more than halved reflecting lower production and declines in natural gas prices. The stock is currently trading lower by more than 6%.

Loss before tax for the six months was US$1.84 million compared with profit before tax of US$1.32 million a year earlier and loss from continuing operations was US$1.72 million compared with profit from continuing operations of US$1.01 million for the same period last year. Loss per share was 10.7 US cents compared with earnings per share of 5.9 US cents a year-ago.

Half-yearly revenue dropped to US$3.06 million from US$8.75 million a year-ago. This reflects a decline in average daily production to 430 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 660 boepd in the same period last year. Lower natural gas prices also contributed to the decline in revenues, the company said.

Stephen Gutteridge, Chairman of Meridian Petroleum discussing about decline in production said, "This was entirely due to the expected decline in production at the Orion field in Michigan, USA, and in June 2009, we sold our interest in that field. In contrast, the East Lake Verret field, which we acquired with effect from March 2008, maintained better than expected levels of output throughout the first half, producing an average of 219 boepd, virtually unchanged from a year ago."

Administrative expenses more than halved to US$931 thousand from US$1.93 million in the same period last year. Meridian Petroleum for the first half-year reported an impairment charge of US$546 thousand.
The company increased its investment in exploration activity to US$3 million from US$1.7 million a year earlier, most of this was invested for 3D seismic survey at PEL 82 license in South Australia and results of that survey confirmed significant prospectivity of around 430 million barrels of oil or 630 billion cubic feet of natural gas, Meridian Petroleum said. The company is planning for a two well drilling programme.

Looking forward, Gutteridge said, "We expect the business environment to remain challenging, and we will therefore remain prudent on valuations, but we have funding available and we remain confident that attractive deals can be delivered."

MRP is currently trading at 40 pence, down 6.98% on LSE.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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