Liquidity problems at EnQuest

That drilling meant production from the Alma/Gaila wells stood at 18,785 barrels of oil per day (boepd) at the end of last month, although full-year production is now expected to be at the lower end of previous guidance at an average 42,000-44,000 boepd. It is this fine balance between cash generation - up 119 per cent to $183m in the period - and falling capital expenditure that is clearly weighing on the market's view of EnQuest.

Long-awaited production from the Scolty and Crathes wells and the Kraken development will all be online by mid-2017. Until that point, serious concerns remain over the strength of the balance sheet, which carried net debt of $1.68bn at the end of June. While EnQuest should not have trouble meeting the $21.6m of bond and interest payments due in the 12 months to June 2017, the group hinted that it may ask for further covenant waivers from its lenders and retail bondholders, and said that additional capital might be required "to maintain appropriate protection against downside risk".

In July, the company hit upon a potential solution to its liquidity needs after entering into discussions to sell a 20 per cent working interest in the Kraken exploration and production licences to Israel's Delek Group. A price of up to $190m has been mooted by one analyst, although nothing has been agreed so far.

Separately, Dr James Buckee used the half-year results to announce his retirement and immediate replacement as chairman by non-executive director Jock Lennox. Bloomberg consensus forecasts are for an adjusted pre-tax loss of $6.4m this year and a 0.9¢ loss per share, increasing to losses of $12.3m and 2.8¢ in 2017.