Zenith Energy Ltd on Wednesday reported big fall in profit despite revenue multiplying, after a one-off gain a year before wasn’t repeated.

The Africa and Middle East-focused energy company said its pretax profit for the six months that ended September 30 plummeted to just C$259,000 from C$68.8 million a year prior, despite revenue multiplying to C$11.6 million from C$2.3 million.

This is principally because the year-earlier period benefited from a C$76.4 million gain on business combination, versus no such gain in the recent half-year.

‘We are greatly encouraged by the current energy pricing environment and the outlook in terms of growth potential for credible junior operators, enabling Zenith to access large, high-quality assets being divested by oil and gas majors in view of the ongoing energy transition,’ said Chief Executive Officer Andrea Cattaneo.

Cattaneo also said its offer for the award of an initial nine-year licence to operate block 1 at the Seme oilfield in Benin was an ‘extremely exciting’ opportunity to develop the largest and most prospective oil field in the West African country. Zenith announced on September 15 the offer was presented to the relevant Benin government ministry.

The site, which is not currently in operation, produced 22 million barrels of oil up to 1998. It still has estimated recoverable reserves of 22 million to 28 million barrels of oil, alongside 428 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Shares in Zenith were down 2.6% to 0.85 pence in London on Wednesday morning. Zenith declared no interim dividend, unchanged.

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