Despite a dip in realised oil prices, Afren (AFR) managed to increase revenues last year on the back of an 8 per cent rise in daily production to 47,112 barrels of oil equivalent (boe). Reported profits for the oil and gas group came in lower, due to a combination of impairment charges and money it owes to some well partners for residual profit. Yet post-tax earnings were buoyed by a $157m (£95m) credit linked to a tax holiday on the Ebok field in Nigeria that will run until May 2016.
Afren's impairments were partly associated with write-off costs on Kenya Block 10A and the group's share of the cost of the Kola-1 and Kola-2 wells at La Noumbi in Congo, which were assessed as commercially unviable. There was much better news in Nigeria: the discovery at the Ogo-1 well was the third-largest oil and gas find in the world last year. The result was significantly in advance of pre-drill estimates, giving Ogo-1 an even-money chance of delivering a recoverable resource of 774m boe. The partners at Ogo-1 plan to run a 3D seismic programme ahead of appraisal drilling later in 2014.