Genel owed $233m for Iraqi Kurdistan exports
ZURICH, March 5, 2015
Genel Energy, one of the main oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan, said it is still owed $233 million for oil it sold to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) but is hopeful stable payments will start this year.
The oil producer reported a full-year loss for 2014 of $312.8 million, mainly due to write-offs relating to some of its exploration assets. Revenues rose nearly 50 per cent to $520 million.
Genel shares were trading 3.5 per cent higher at 0818 GMT.
Oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan have been caught in the middle of a dispute between the Iraqi central government and the KRG over the rights to valuable oil exports.
The parties struck an agreement at the end of last year and Baghdad has resumed payments to Kurdish officials but money has been slow to trickle through to oil producers.
Genel said the KRG had established a temporary domestic sales channel through which it receives 50 percent of proceeds for oil sales from its Taq Taq field.
"We expect to receive regular payments for exports as we move through 2015," Genel chief executive Tony Hayward said in a statement.
The slump in oil prices has also taken its toll on Genel and it announced in January that it expected lower revenue this year. It has also slashed its capital expenditure programme by 70 per cent from last year to $200-250 million and plans to cut jobs to save costs.