Dubai: A 70 per cent rise in second quarter net profit at Dana Gas was not enough to convince shareholders to hang onto their holdings as shares fell by almost 3 per cent to Dh0.69 on the Abu Dhabi-bourse on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the Sharjah-based energy firm posted a profit of Dh169 million ($46 million) for the three months ending June 30, compared to Dh100 million a year earlier.

Revenue for the second quarter was Dh685 million, 30 per cent higher than the Dh528 million it reported last year.

Dana Gas, which has operations in the UAE, Iraq’s Kurdistan region and Egypt, saw production increase by 17 per cent over 91 days with 6.6 million barrels of oil equivalent produced compared to 5.6 million a year earlier.

“Dana Gas has continued to deliver impressive production growth and consistent operational and financial performance despite ongoing challenges in our key markets,” said Patrick Allman-Ward, Dana Gas chief executive officer, in a statement.

The energy firm is confident of resolving ongoing overdue receivables with the Egyptian government. It has received Dh150 million in the first half, however, a little over Dh1 billion remains outstanding.

Allman-Ward said in a conference call on Wednesday that the majority of overdue payments from the Egyptian government are expected to be recovered by 2018, Reuters reported. Reuters also reported that Danas Gas expects a payment by Egypt’s petroleum sector by September.

Dana Gas is still yet to receive a significant payment from the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq since July 2013. Dana Gas is now owed Dh2.38 billion as of June 30, up from $1.88 billion on December 31.

In July, the London Court of Arbitration ordered the KRG to restore previous regular payments as of March 21 until the case is concluded.

Allan-Ward also said in the conference call that no security threats have emerged in Kurdistan, so far.

In Sharjah, Dana Gas said it is making “good progress” on the Zora Gas Field project with first gas on track to be extracted in the first half next year.

Net profit for the six months ending June 30 slightly declined to Dh333 million, compared to Dh341 a year earlier. However, in the first half 2013 there was a one of gain of Dh143 million due to partial sell off of shares in MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas. Revenues for the first half climbed almost 24 per cent to Dh1.3 billion.