InterOil shares fall on NYSE

INTEROIL Corp’s shares took a nose dive yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange following a second consecutive loss in the third quarter this year.
It reported a wider loss for the period caused mainly by the oil and gas company’s write-down of inventories, low oil prices and purchasing of Flex LNG shares.
Its shares opened yesterday morning at US$89.84 and closed at US$45.52, but during the after-hours trading, it dropped further to US$42.49.
The company could not explain yesterday why it purchased Flex shares at the cost of about US$7 million.
It is a company that signed an agreement to work with it in the InterOil’s Gulf LNG project.
This is the project which the current government wanted reviewed and returned to the original plan for a large world-class LNG liquefaction project.
InterOil’s net loss for the quarter widened to US$19.8 million or US$0.41 per share from US$14.4 million or US$0.33 per share in the same quarter last year.
The company said a consolidated net loss of US$19.8 million which comprised    US$700,000 loss in operating segments of corporate, midstream refining and downstream operations while the upstream and midstream liquefaction programs had a collective net loss of US$19.1 million.
The company said by the end of the quarter, it retained Morgan Stanley & Co LLC, Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc and UBS AG as joint financial advisers to assist it in soliciting and evaluating proposals from potential strategic partners.
“We anticipate that these proposals will relate to obtaining an internationally recognised LNG operating partner for development of the Gulf LNG project’s gas liquefaction and associated facilities in the Gulf province of Papua New Guinea, together with a sale of an interest in the Elk and Antelope fields, and in our other exploration tenements in Papua New Guinea,” company CEO Phil Mulacek announced.
He said civil works on the road between the Purari river wharf and the Elk/Antelope fields continued during the year through the third quarter, with the connection to Antelope-2 completed towards the end of September.
 “Work now involves cleaning up, grading, strengthening bridges and surfacing of the road,” he said.
Subsequent to the quarter end, a further phase of 50km of exploration seismic was currently underway to further delineate identified leads in its petroleum prospecting licences (PPLs) 236 and 238, which will assist in locating the next well site for drilling before the end of March 2013 in compliance with license requirements.
Revenues for the quarter grew to US$281.9 million from US$208.5 million in the prior-year quarter.
Mulacek said: “We are pleased to be working with internationally-recognised advisers to seek proposals from potential strategic partners.
 “While we look forward to a prompt conclusion to this process and to our discussions with the PNG government concerning the Gulf LNG project, we continue to pre-invest in our Gulf LNG project and the civil works and the front-end engineering and design.
 “We believe that the considerable strengthening of the Asian LNG market, the increased interest in exploration and investment in Papua New Guinea, as well as the company’s reservoir analysis and project design fundamentals, will yield a successful result from the partnering process.
“We continue to negotiate LNG off-take agreements and are working with a number of parties with this aim.
“We look forward to spudding the Triceratops 2 well and expect to do so towards the end of this fourth quarter.
“The phase three seismic programme has improved our structural model of the prospect and increased our optimism for a successful confirmation with the drill bit. In addition, our exploration activities are maturing our prospect inventory,” Mulacek said in a statement.