PETRONEFT, THE Irish explorer with interests in western Siberia, has reported a loss of just under $8 million (€5.64 million) for 2008, compared to a loss of $3.2 million the previous year.

This increase was mainly due to the impact of a foreign exchange loss resulting from the weakening of the Russian ruble against the US dollar.

Davy analyst Job Langbroek noted that the 2008 results showed "much progress" in relation to the development of oil and gas fields in Licence 61, in the Tomsk region of western Siberia.

In 2008, the company's "proved and probable" oil reserves increased by 16 per cent to 70 million barrels.

However, plans to begin production at two of the Siberian oil fields in Licence 61 were delayed as project finance negotiations that had been under way at the time "completely stalled", Mr Langbroek said.

Negotiations with banks are ongoing.

The board of the company has said that it is confident funding will become available later this year.

However, the delay has meant that production will commence in 2010 instead of this year, as previously planned.

Petroneft's annual general meeting will be held in Dublin on September 14th.