United Energy builds platform to recovery

MARY FAGAN

Industrial Correspondent

United Energy, formerly known as Falcon Resources, made a post-tax profit of pounds 35,000 in the first half of the year, compared with a loss of pounds 193,000 in the same period last year. The company, whose main operations are the development and production of oil and gas interests in the US and Europe, increased its turnover to pounds 1.8bn in the six months to 30 June, from pounds 1.2bn a year ago.

The United chairman, John Billington, said the company had a strong platform on which to continue to develop the business in the oil, gas and wider energy sectors. He was optimistic that the progress made in the first half could be built on - group production was about double that of this time last year and at record levels.

"The Woodbine and Renown properties have been integrated successfully into the existing portfolio in the US and we have identified areas with potential for increased production and/or reduced operating costs with the intention of implementing these improvements prior to the year end," he said.

In addition, the company had significant interests in two fields that it believed were potential candidates for waterflooding - a technique in which water is swept through a field, pushing the oil ahead of it in the hopes of enhancing recoverable reserves. But the reserves attributable to these had yet to be included in the mid-year reserves pending further engineering evaluation, he said.