Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON: GKP), the independent oil producer and operator of the Shaikan Field in Iraqi Kurdistan, surged in early trade on Tuesday after half-year results showed the business withstood two separate security-driven production shut-ins without breaking its dividend policy or its debt-free balance sheet.
Shares were trading up 8.07% at 198.2p as of 08:35 London time, against Monday’s close of 183.4p, having earlier touched an intraday high of 199.2p. The move is intraday only and has not yet been confirmed at the close. That leaves the stock roughly in the middle of its 52-week range of 160.60p to 234.95p.
The results, published before market open on Tuesday, showed Shaikan was shut in for security reasons from late February to late June, then again from mid-July to mid-August, crushing gross average production to 14,600 barrels of oil per day from 44,100 a year earlier. Chief executive Jon Harris said the performance “demonstrated the resilience of our business, our people and the Shaikan Field through a period of significant regional disruption.” He added that production and exports have now restarted following an extension of the tripartite interim export agreements between the international oil companies, Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, with volumes continuing to ramp up towards prior levels. Gross output is now approaching 40,000 bopd.
Despite the near two-thirds drop in output, adjusted EBITDA, a measure of underlying operating profit, rose 26% to $51.7m from $41.1m in H1 2025. The swing was driven by a sharply higher realised export price of $83.5 a barrel, against $27.8 a year earlier, alongside deep cost cuts. Harris said decisive action to reduce spending had allowed the company to minimise cash outflow, maintain a robust, debt-free balance sheet and pay a $12.5 million dividend to shareholders. Cash stood at $61.1m at 30 June, down from $99.0m a year earlier, and had recovered to $63.5m as of yesterday, 24 August. The board declared a new $10m interim dividend, payable on 28 September.
The rise suggests markets read the production restart and maintained payout as confirmation the company can recover from the disruption without needing to compromise its cash position or shareholder returns.
Risks remain unresolved. Gulf Keystone is carrying a $79.6m top-up receivable, money it is owed for the gap between the roughly $30 a barrel it has been receiving in cash and its contractual entitlement price, more than double the $31.3m owed at the end of 2025 and pending an independent consultant’s review.