UAE's Dana says current cash position over $185m

UAE-based Dana Gas has enough cash, liquid investments and funding plans in place to deliver on its growth plans, the company's chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

Privately-held Dana Gas saw its shares drop by more than 6 per cent on Tuesday and another 2.9 per cent on Monday, weighing down on the Abu Dhabi index.

"The current cash position is healthy and in excess of $185 million," CFO Jim Dewar told Reuters in a written statement. "We are confident on our funding arrangements for 2010, based on existing cash flows and substantial progress on the farm out of 20-30 per cent of our Egypt assets."

The company had recently held a Middle East roadshow to update investors, and one trader told Reuters there had been investor concern over the speed at which the firm plans to sell 20 to 30 per cent of its assets in Egypt.

"The reason we are farming out some of our assets in Egypt is because we feel that this is the right time to unlock some of that value – not because we have liquidity problems – and it's all going efficiently," Dewar said.

Dana's production of oil and gas in Egypt stood at over 42,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) compared to an average of 34,700 boepd in 2009, he said.

Dana Gas reported profit of Dh33m ($8.98m) during the first quarter of 2010 due to higher oil and gas output and rising energy prices.

That followed a fourth quarter 2009 loss of Dh193m ($52.54m), the second consecutive quarterly loss that year, after accounting write-offs and the impairment of some oil and gas assets.