Gulf Keystone Petroleum receives payment for its September oil exports from the Kurdistan Regional Government
Gulf Keystone Petroleum today confirmed it has received a gross payment of $15m (£11.8m) for September crude oil exports from the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The London-listed oil group and the Kurdish government’s ministry of natural resources “continue to work towards agreeing the final form of invoices for May through September 2016”, Gulf Keystone said in a statement.
The payment for exports from its Shaikan oil field, the group’s main asset, has brought the company’s current cash position to $104.5m.
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Gulf Keystone pumps 40,000 barrels of oil per day from the Shaikan field, though it has previously been crippled by late payments from the government, which have been an ongoing issue. It is aiming to increase production to 55,000 barrels per day.
Earlier this year, the firm completed a major finance restructuring in a debt-for-equity swap that shrunk its debt burden from $600m to $100m and reduced its investors’ holdings from 100 per cent to five per cent.
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Sami Zouari, the company's chief financial officer, told City A.M. in October that the Kurdish government has done the best it can in trying circumstances and that payments have been fairly regular for more than a year now.
The market was unmoved by the announcement, with shares falling 1.63 per cent to 1.21p in afternoon trading.