SIRIUS PETROLEUM PLC – Interim Results for the six month period ended 30 June 2011
Interim Results for the six month period ended 30 June 2011
Sirius (AIM:SRSP), the oil and gas exploration and development company announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2011.
Summary
- Significant progress made on potential oil and gas assets acquisitions
- Development of trading business – completed sale of first cargo of Fuel Oil since the period end
- Strengthened board with appointment of oil & gas specialist Ed Johnson as Commercial Director
Chairman’s Statement
I am pleased to present my first report as Chairman of Sirius, covering the six month period to 30 June 2011. This has been a period of significant progress on both the assessment of potential oil and gas asset acquisitions and the development of an oil trading business. We have also strengthened the board of directors (the “Board”) through the appointment of Ed Johnson and I am delighted to welcome Ed to the Board. Ed joins us as Commercial director and will work with the Board in its assessment of potential projects but also has been charged with the task of building the management team required to control and monitor our oil field projects on a day-to-day basis as soon as we commence first operations.
Oil field projects
Having identified a number of attractive oil field assets we are undertaking the work necessary to assess the technical data on the fields and determine the economics of each project. We will make an announcement as appropriate once we have selected our preferred first target and entered into an agreement to develop the asset.
Trading activities
In regards to our trading activities, the Company is pleased to announce it has commenced trading activities and completed the sale of a cargo of Fuel Oil (Premium Motor Spirit) which has generated a net profit in excess of $140,000 since the period end. Following the successful completion of this trade, the Company intends to import cargos of increasing size and on a more frequent basis to generate a reliable income stream. Whilst the Company has deliberately made a small and cautious start to this activity, we look forward to developing this business activity into a significant revenue stream
Results
As these results pre-date our first revenues reported above, they represent the costs of developing our strategy, reviewing potential marginal field opportunities and setting the structure for oil trading activities. Cash costs incurred in the half year amounted to $4,785,000 which include certain costs of the aborted Ke transaction and the Company’s re-admission to AIM as an investing company earlier this year, The vast majority of these costs are non-recurring in nature with normal overheads, net of sundry income amounting to $804,000,which is in line with expectations. During the period the Company benefitted from the recovery of $600,000 which had been advanced to Del Sigma and which had previously been written off. The results include a non-cash charge of $6,239,000 for share based payments which is an accounting adjustment relating to warrants and options issued by the Company to directors, Strand Hanson, Corvus and EMMEF. Taking these items together the Company recorded a loss for the period of $10,303,000 (5 month period to 30 June 2010: $828,000) giving a loss per share of 01.63c (2010: 0.16c). The Company’s cash reserves remain strong with funds available as cash at bank or on short term deposit amounting approximately $3.9million at 30 June 2011
During the period the Company issued a total of 220,898,610 new ordinary shares of 0.25p each and now has 741,726,330 shares in issue. Sirius does not hold any shares in treasury and hence the total number of voting rights in the Company is 741,726,330 and this figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Service Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Jack Pryde
Chairman
22 August 2011