Irish oil and gas explorer PetroNeft Resources has secured a $2 million (€1.63 million) loan due to mature at the end of this year.
The facility agreed with Petrogrand AB, a Swedish oil company active in the Russian market, will be used for "general corporate purposes and to finance a potential drilling programme in 2018".
“The loan facility will provide time and space for a more long-term financing solution to be put in place,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Petroneft operates in the Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, and is a 50 per cent owner of two licences in the region. Winter production is now underway as the winter roads in the region have become available.
Prior to this financing arrangement PetroNeft was debt free.
In its most recent half-year trading update, the oil and gas explorer recorded losses before tax of $4.5 million (€3.93 million)in the twelve months to the end of December 2016.
The Siberian-focused company saw revenue dip slightly by 4.9 per cent to $2.2 million as the cost of sales also dropped to just over $2 million from $2.3 million the previous year.
