The UK’s largest producing onshore oil producer lost more than £100m last year, according to company accounts.
Perenco UK Limited, which also produces gas from the southern section of the North Sea, announced a pre-tax loss of £101.732m.
This was down slightly on the loss of £113.238m in 2019 and was because of reduced operating costs and depletion charges, the accounts said.
Revenue from oil and gas were both down by more than a third on 2019.
Wytch Farm produced more than 84% of UK onshore oil in 2020, exceeding 730,000m3. But 2020 saw the sixth consecutive annual fall in production at the field and the lowest yearly volume since 2011.
An impairment reversal – where an asset can be declared valuable when it was previously declared a liability – was recognised for Wytch Farm. The figure of £24.5m represented a full reversal of all previous impairments, the company said.
Perenco said it claimed £473,000 in Covid-19 furlough payments. It made charitable donations of £24,000, down from £2,608,000 in 2019.
Key figures
Loss before tax: £101.732m (2019: £113.238m)
Operating loss: £73.843m (2019: £78.119m)
Loss for the financial year: £47.582m (2019: £59.885m)
Net liabilities: £24.211m (down from net assets of £20.948m in December 2019
Cash at bank and in hand at the end of the year: £4.813m (2019: £8.151m)
Revenue from oil sales: £166.914m (2019: 253.586m)
Revenue from gas sales: £141.894m (2019: £245.095m)
Cost of sales: £430.276m (2019: £641.563m)
Depletion, depreciation and amortisation: £163.803m (2019: £343.894m)
Admin expenses: £5.177m (2019: £9.357m)
Average monthly number of staff: 745 (2019: 766)
Staff costs: £74.778m (2019: £77.422m)
Directors’ remuneration: £4.721m (2019: 2.590m)
Charitable donations: £24,000 (2019: £2,608,000)
Furlough payments: £473,000
Immediate parent company: Perenco Petroleum Limited, a company incorporated in The Bahamas.
Ultimate controlling party: Perenco International Limited, a company incorporated in The Bahamas. Controlled by the Perrodo family and trusts.
DRILL OR DROP? 
Interesting to see that the directors’ remunerations doubled compared with the previous year, despite unimpressive performance!
You mean despite reducing the loss against the previous year, yet in the midst of a pandemic, Alex39! Not convinced many other companies will have done as good-apart from Amazon and a few others who have benefitted financially through the pandemic.
Interesting.