Alongside these figures, North Sea oil producer Valiant Petroleum also announced a strategic review. That could involve such options as a farm-down of existing assets, or even a merger or sale of the company. That helped the shares rise solidly and investors may want to book some of those profits - although retaining a stake also makes sense, given Valiant's potential.
Admittedly, the figures themselves, weren't great. Valiant averaged production of just 4,800 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the period, down from 8,225 bopd in the same period last year. But management expects overall production this year to roughly match rates from last year at between 7,000 bopd and 8,500 bopd. Even after adjusting for hefty exploration writedowns, pre-tax profit tumbled to $32.9m (£21m), compared with $84.7m last year.