Lower crude prices dragged first-half net income at gas and oil exploration company Dragon Oil down 37 per cent to $105 million, the company said today.
Sales fell 29 per cent to $263.5 million in the same period, while operating profit was down 39 per cent to $122 million.
Capital expenditure rose slightly to $155.1 million from $154.5 million a year earlier.
Chief executive Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa said the company was continuing to build momentum towards "significant production growth" in the coming years, describing the first half of the year as "challenging".
"With the slowdown in the broader economy, we have been able to drive cost optimisation by renegotiating contracts and re-tendering certain projects," he said.
He said despite overall production growth in the first half of 2009 being below expectations, the firm expect more wells to come on stream in the second half of the year, and aim to complete up to 35 wells during the 2009 to 2011 period.
"That will help us achieve our long-term goal of annual production growth of up to 15 per cent on average for 2009-11," he said.
