Afren see profits dive

Africa-focused oil and gas firm Afren said its profit fell 42 percent in the first half as production was affected by the delayed start up of the Ebok field in Nigeria.

"Whilst first-half production volumes were impacted by periods of non-reservoir related facilities down time, we are now ramping up production towards our targeted 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) exit rate, said Chief Executive Osman Shahenshah.

The FTSE-250 oil and gas company posted pretax profit of $43.7 million, compared with $75.4 million in the year-earlier period, as production fell 36 percent to 13,000 boepd.