Dragon Oil, the Turkmenistan-focused explorer, increased its production by a quarter in the first half of the year. Dragon yesterday said it had produced an average of 58,000 barrels of oil per day over the six months to the end of June.

This led the company to reiterate its guidance of an uplift of up to 20 per cent in production for 2011 as a whole.

Dragon, which is 51 per cent owned by the government of Dubai, has three operational rigs and expects to drill and complete 12 wells this year. Cash balances at the firm, net of $216 million in abandonment and decommissioning charges, stood at $1.256 billion at June 30th, up from $1.163 billion six months previously. Dragon said it continued to look out for acquisition targets in north, west and east Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Dragon shares closed 19 cent higher at €6.45 in Dublin yesterday.