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Ithaca Energy PLC on Thursday said it had began the new year with higher production capacity, as it confirmed plans to pay out £500 million to investors for 2025. The London-based oil and gas company estimated it made $2.0 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exploration expense in 2025, up from $1.4 billion in 2024. Daily production averaged 119,000 barrels of oil equivalent in 2025, up from 80,000 barrels the previous year. This was at the lower end of annual guidance, which Ithaca had revised up to range from 119,000 to 125,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Ithaca’s 2025 exit rate was about 148,000 boepd, with peak daily production above 150,000 barrels, thanks in part to new wells at the Cygnus, Seagull and J Area prospects. At the end of December, the company held preliminary 2P reserves just over 350 million barrels of oil equivalent, and more than 300 million barrels in 2C resources. In 2024, it held 657 million barrels of oil equivalent of 2P reserves and 2C resources combined. Net operating costs totalled $817 million in 2025, or $19 per barrel of oil equivalent, reduced from $22 barrels in 2024, and in the middle of the target range, which was from $790 million to $840 million. Ithaca stressed that it had the ‘financial firepower to support continued growth’ with leverage of 0.56 times and available liquidity of $1.5 billion, as at December 31. This includes $1.3 billion undrawn from a reserve-based loan. Notably in December, the company said its insurers would pay $6.5 million to settle a class action suit alleging that Ithaca had misrepresented its offshore oil and gas business. The case was brought to a Canadian court by investors who had purchased the company’s shares in 2015. It was settled without Ithaca admitting to liability. According to the company, its hedge position offers ‘strong coverage into 2026’. Ithaca said it has been ‘taking advantage of upside market volatility’, bringing its hedge position at January 31 to 43.8 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which oil accounts for 58% and gas for 42%. The company expects to retain this ‘strong’ position into 2027, thereby ‘protecting 2026 cash flows in an anticipated weaker commodity price environment’. Ithaca also reaffirmed its 2025 total dividend target of $500 million. Back in December, it had paid an accelerated second interim dividend of $133 million in total, with a further $200 million to be declared when it publishes annual results late March. The company continues to consolidate UK Continental Shelf assets, with recently acquired zones of the Seagull and Cygnus fields contributing 17,000 boepd in 2025. In the West Shetland Basin, Ithaca expects its floating production storage and offloading vessel to sail away in the first quarter of 2026. It is eyeing a farm-in of the Tobermory zone in the fourth quarter. Ithaca shares were up 5.5% to 190.60 pence on Thursday morning in London. By Holly Munks, Alliance News reporter Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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