Irish oil explorer PetroNeft secures €1.63m loan

The loan will be used to finance a potential drilling programme this year

Irish oil and gas explorer PetroNeft Resources has secured a $2 million (€1.63 million) loan due to mature at the end of this year.

The facility agreed with Petrogrand AB, a Swedish oil company active in the Russian market, will be used for "general corporate purposes and to finance a potential drilling programme in 2018".

“The loan facility will provide time and space for a more long-term financing solution to be put in place,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Petroneft operates in the Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, and is a 50 per cent owner of two licences in the region. Winter production is now underway as the winter roads in the region have become available.

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Prior to this financing arrangement PetroNeft was debt free.

In its most recent half-year trading update, the oil and gas explorer recorded losses before tax of $4.5 million (€3.93 million)in the twelve months to the end of December 2016.

The Siberian-focused company saw revenue dip slightly by 4.9 per cent to $2.2 million as the cost of sales also dropped to just over $2 million from $2.3 million the previous year.

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in business