Senex, which has $101 million in cash, says it has been forced to reduce its production guidance narrowed to 1-1.05 million barrels of oil equivalent following delays to connection of Vanessa gas field.
Net production fell 4% to 250,000bo due to natural field decline mostly offset by the contribution of new wells, such as e Martlet-2 and Growler-6, while sales slumped 8% to 240,000boe.
Senex's revenue was down 8% to $16.7 million, with the realised average oil price of $A70 per barrel protected by hedging. The company says it is making $21 on each barrel produced.
Operationally, Senex has worked hard to keep costs under control. Drilling is on hold until the second half of the year, and its major work has been development of the Vanessa gas field, where the company has been stymied by a lack of downstream infrastructure availability, and Martlet-2 facilities.
The company cut expenditure to $5.5 million, down 26%, and narrowed its 2015-16 spending guidance to $25-30 million, down from $35-45 million due to a deferral of expenditure in the Surat Basin to allow time to take full account of the sub-surface production and technical data received from the Santos-led Gladstone LNG project.
From the second half of the year it intends to kick off phase one field operations in the Western Surat CSG project with the drilling of 10 wells in the Eos block and the completion of 5 wells in the Glenora block to be followed by comprehensive testing.
It also plans to frac two wells, Efficient-1 and Ethereal-1, with Origin Energy later this year
Senex says its Murta Formation tight oil project has shown some level of improved performance in the fracced Mirage-6 and Ventura-2 wells, and monitoring is ongoing.
The much smaller Cooper produced 113,000bbl, down from 122,000bbl in the December quarter, bringing in lower revenue of $6.1 million, including hedging gains of $1.2 million.
It is producing oil at $28.55/bbl, but it is selling the oil for $55.56/bbl, far less than Senex.
The oil price impact is being mitigated through a combination of hedging, reduced operating costs per barrel, reduced general and administration costs and capital expenditure in the established operations, with the bulk of expenditure on developing its developing gas business in the Gippsland Basin, Victoria.
Front-end engineering and design for the Sole field is now 63% complete, and the company is confident of finding buyers for its gas and a development partner.
Cooper has cash and investments of $27 million, which will be boosted by$US8.25 million ($A10.6 million) following the sale of several Indonesian licences.
The company has extended the tenure and volume of its hedge book during the quarter, so half of its fourth quarter 2015-16 production is hedged at an average floor price of $68.50/bbl.
Like Senex, Cooper does not expect to drill any wells before mid-year.
Beach Energy is expected to release its quarterly report tomorrow.
Cooper shares were $0.25 this morning and Senex was trading at $0.275/share.
