EnQuest confirms production forecast for 2026, but UK windfall tax hurts profit

EnQuest, a North Sea oil producer, reaffirmed its production forecast for 2026 on Wednesday. The company is banking primarily on investments in Britain and South East Asia after Britain's windfall tax levies impacted last year's profit.

EnQuest, like its competitors, continues to be challenged by the UK's Energy Profits Levy which has raised questions about the competitiveness of North Sea producers. The company is working to increase?output of mature assets in order to counter third party outages.

EnQuest stated that the Middle East conflict had not disrupted its operations yet, but noted the volatility of oil prices due to supply disruptions resulting from the conflict.

The oil prices dropped by 4% after news that the United States sent Iran a 15 point proposal to end the Middle East conflict, raising the prospect of a "ceasefire".

At 0818 GMT, shares of the company dropped 4.4% to 17,74 pence.

The company reported that its post-tax profits had fallen by 98.3% to $1.6 million for 2025. This was due to the extension of the windfall taxes by two years. It said that the underlying profit would be $125.5 mn, excluding items.

EnQuest has reiterated that it expects to produce 41,000-45,000 barrels (boepd) of oil equivalent per day by 2026, despite the fact that last year's output of 45.606 boepd was higher than expected. (Reporting and editing by Rashmi aich and Sumanthy Nandy in Bengaluru.

(source: Reuters)