Thanks to last year’s takeover of Wandoo Petroleum, the Perth-based company’s revenue hit a record $54.2 million in the December quarter.

The $US189 million acquisition gave Arc an additional 24% stake in the Cliff Head oil field and a 12.5% stake in the Yolla gas field.

Despite the higher revenues, Arc’s gas production dropped from slightly over 2 petajoules (1.9 billion cubic feet) in the September quarter to 1.9PJ (1.8bcf) – despite continued field maintenance activity.

“The decline was exacerbated by a fire at the Beharra Springs gas plant on Christmas Eve,” Arc said.

“This resulted in a plant shutdown while the cause of the fire and the necessary repairs were accessed.”

The facility, which produces 10 terajoules of gas per day, is due to come back online next month.

On a brighter note, Arc’s oil production remained relatively steady at 441,000 barrels of oil output, a result the company said was in line with reservoir engineering predictions.

“Technical work has focused on identifying undrained or poorly drained areas in the fields and the Hovea-13 well to access one of these areas has been proposed to the joint venture to be drilled as the first well in the 2008 Perth Basin drilling campaign,” Arc said.

At the offshore Cliff Head oil field, output grew 8% to 9469 barrels of oil per day thanks to successful workovers late last year.

But output from the field, which came online in May 2006, has already peaked.

“During December 2007, the field moved into what is expected to be the mature phase of its productive life with the onset of natural decline, which is scheduled to last many years, during which time the focus will be on optimising well production performance and recovery,” Arc said.