Losses at Island Oil & Gas increase

Island Oil & Gas saw losses widen last year after the company spent more money on exploration.

The net loss amounted to £101,000 (€147,253) for the year to the end of last July, compared with a loss of £66,000 for nine months of the previous year.

Last year's loss included a one-time gain of £47,000 and was exacerbated by £728,000 worth of administrative costs.

The annual earnings report was the first since shares of Island Oil & Gas began trading on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in December, 2004.

The Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny-based company signed an agreement in October with Petrolia Drilling to explore three wells back to back.

Two of the sites are in the Celtic Sea and the third, where drilling is due to start in June, is off the Donegal coast. Island Oil & Gas will use infrastructure already built by another group, Ramco.

"Island's full-year results demonstrate a remarkable amount of activity in a short space of time," according to Job Langbroek, an analyst at Davy Stockbrokers in Dublin.

Ireland's band of oil and gas resource companies have benefited from rising prices.

After surging to records in 2005, crude oil prices north of $60 (€49.16 ) a barrel are now here to stay, according to most market commentators and think tanks.