Jupiter Energy in turm-oil due to fall in Brent crude price
What a difference a year makes. Aussie oil producer Jupiter Energy, which explores in Kazakhstan, shut all its operational wells back in February 2015, saying it wanted to wait “until domestic oil pricing reaches a level where oil production is cashflow positive”.
Back then, Brent crude was priced at around $60 a barrel, which seemed like a pretty epic fall compared with summer 2014’s $115.
Many analysts were forecasting a rise by the end of the year, but how wrong they were. Oil's currently at $34 a barrel, with some experts now saying it could end up cheaper than water, despite recent murmurs of a highly unlikely supply-cut agreement between producers.
Not good news for Jupiter Energy. The company, which is listed on London’s Aim, said in its quarterly update today that it “believes that production may recommence during 2016 but is unable to give any guarantee that oil production will recommence in that timeframe”. Talk about sitting on the fence.
Weirdly, despite having stopped production almost a year ago, Jupiter is looking for funding for some new trial wells in a different block in Kazakhstan. Form an orderly queue…
Shares were down 0.4 per cent to 10.25p in early trading.