Dublin-and London-listed exploration company Dragon Oil said today that gross production for its third quarter averaged 46,060 barrels of oil per day, a 9 per cent rise on the same period a year earlier.
In an interim management statement issued today Dragon said it had put four wells into production during the quarter.
The company sold 3.1 million barrels of crude oil in the third quarter, up from 1.4 million a year earlier.
It exported about 90 per cent of its crude oil via Neka, Iran, with the remaining balance going through Baku, Azerbaijan.
It continues to assess additional routes to market, including Makhachkala in Russia, the Baku-Batumi corridor and the BP-operated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
"Dragon Oil has seen good rates from the wells completed so far this year. Based on our estimates for the drilling programme and production forecasts for the rest of the year, we expect to achieve an increase in average gross field production of about 10 per cent in 2009," said Dragon's chief executive Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa.
"At the end of 2009, we expect to have two platform-based rigs and one jack-up rig on a full-time basis, alongside the Astra jack-up rig on a short-term contract, operating in the Cheleken Contract Area. This will set the stage for achieving higher production growth targets in the next two years, 2010-11,” he added.