Oil and gas exploration and production company Dragon Oil reported a 9 per cent increase in daily oil output in the first quarter and said it had agreed a short-term crude swap deal with Iran.
The average daily production rate reached 47,654 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the period ending March 31st, 2010, with three development wells coming on stream at combined rates of 2,103 bopd, 2,168 bopd and 1,895 bopd.
Dragon Oil said it is currently negotiating a new long term swap agreement, with the previous one expiring on March 31st 2010, but it had concluded a deal for a short term on a rollover basis on revised terms. It did not specify what the revised terms were.
"Dragon Oil continues to increase production," said chief executive Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa.
"This year we have added workovers and sidetracks to our drilling programme in addition to the objective of completing 11 development wells by year end. The infrastructure development programme for the year is well underway along with the award of two production platforms Dzheitune (Lam) C and Dzhygalybeg (Zhdanov) A."
At the end of the quarter, the company had a cash balance of $1.1 billion with no debt.
Capital expenditure in the period was $67 million, compared with $81 million in the same period last year.
The company said it was working towards completing 11 new development wells and up to three sidetracks in 2010, with average production growth of 10 per cent to 15 per cent per year over the three year period of 2010-12.
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