The market value of Afren (AFR) is down by a third since it suspended chief executive Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah in July. Unfortunately, Afren’s delayed half-year report came a day after news that the beleaguered oil and gas group had suspended associate directors Iain Wright and Galib Virani as part of its ongoing investigation into the unauthorised payments allegedly received by Messrs Shahenshah and Ullah.
If the boardroom drama wasn’t bad enough, Afren also revealed that its interim operating profits had nearly halved to $165m (£99m). The fall-away was primarily due to a reduced share of production from the flagship Ebok field in Nigeria. Afren’s total working-interest production came in at 33,488 barrels of oil per day (bopd) – a 25 per cent reduction on the 2013 interim rate. Afren did receive an extra $4 for every barrel of oil it sold during the period, but comparable operating cash flows were still down by 37 per cent to $354m.