Dana Gas on Sunday said that its receivables from Egypt stood at $164m in Egypt in 2017, accounting for 129% of billings, according to a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). Accordingly, Dana's total receivable balance in Egypt fell 14% to $228m last year from $265m. Last week, Egypt's Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said the country had paid $200m in arrears owed to foreign oil companies in January, and would pay another $550m in February and March. Egypt owed foreign oil companies $2.4bn at the end of June 2017, the Petroleum Ministry said this week. No updated figure was available. Cairo has pledged to eliminate arrears by the end of June 2019 and not to accumulate more, as part of its drive to draw new foreign investment to an energy sector that is attracting interest following several major gas discoveries. Meanwhile, the UAE-based energy producer Dana on Sunday reported turning a profit in 2017 of AED 305m ($83m) after taxes against AED 323m in losses ($88m) in 2016. Moreover, full-year gross revenues grew 15% to AED 1.649bn from AED 1.437bn in 2016. Dana Gas attributed the revenue rise to improved production from its operations in Egypt and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, according to a filing to the ADX. Dana Gas' average production in 2017 reached 67,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), registering a rise of 1% from 67,050 boepd recorded in 2016. Moreover, realised prices for liquids increased 21% in 2017, contributing a gain of AED 179m ($49m), while production also grew, adding a further AED 33m ($9m) to the topline. Dana Gas further revealed that its total assets had increased slightly to AED 13.864bn ($3.78bn) in 2017 from AED 13.800bn ($3.765bn) in 2016. "Shareholders' equity continues to be strong at AED 10.5bn ($2.9bn)," the company stated. As for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2017, the Abu Dhabi-listed gas company said it trimmed its losses by 63% to AED 153m from AED 418m in Q4 2016. Losses per share (LPS) fell to 2.2 Emirati fils per share in Q4 2017 from 6 fils in the year-prior period. Dana Gas had previously logged a 700% year-over-year surge in net profits to AED 375m in Q3 2017 from AED 47m.
