Lekoil's (LEK) full-year pre-tax loss narrowed to $11.9m (£7m) from $18.1m a year earlier, on the back of a steep fall in finance costs. The Africa-focused driller, with operations in Nigeria and Namibia, forked out $0.19m to meet its finance commitments, against $0.63m in 2013.
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Production at the Otakikpo field, in which Lekoil holds a 40 per cent interest, is expected to be on-line midway through this year. The first phase of production is estimated to be worth $77m (net) to Lekoil, based on a sub-$40 oil price. Lekoil is also working through some 1,505 square kilometres worth of 3-D seismic data on the offshore Ogo discovery.
