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Thu 03 Mar 2007Dragon Oil sees increase of 41% in pretax profitsDragon Oil recorded a 41 per cent increase in pretax profits last year, boosted by higher oil production and rising commodity prices.In its full-year results released yesterday, Dragon, which has a licence to drill for oil in the Cheleken Contract area of Turkmenistan, revealed pretax profit of $212.2 million (€161.3 million). This figure came in slightly behind analysts' expectations, though Gerry Hennigan at Goodbody said it was more of a technical issue relating to the timing of oil sales rather than a reflection on the group's performance.