Venture Production Plc, the U.K. oil and gas explorer that agreed to buy WHAM Energy Plc in August, said full-year profit fell 41 percent after unplanned production halts curbed output and gas prices declined.

Net income dropped to 48.2 million pounds ($96.5 million), or 33.9 pence a share, from 81.6 million pounds, or 59 pence, the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service.

Production slipped 7.7 percent last year to 41,228 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Venture said Jan. 15, prompting a 13 percent decline in the stock price. The explorer blamed longer-than- expected field maintenance and delays in starting its Chiswick and Chestnut deposits. The company said in a separate statement it acquired interests in fields in the Dutch and U.K. North Sea.

Average U.K. day-ahead gas prices fell to 30.12 pence a therm in 2007 from 42.13 pence a therm a year earlier, according to Spectron Group Plc, as new supply sources came on stream.

Venture's proven and probable reserves totaled 202.4 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2007, down 8.5 percent from 2006, the company said in January.

The explorer is among the energy companies developing previously stranded North Sea deposits, as record-high oil prices and dwindling reserves compel producers to search in harder-to-reach areas. It said Aug. 23 it would buy London-based WHAM to add gas resources in the southern North Sea, offering WHAM shareholders 19.7 pence a share in cash and 0.0338 shares in Venture.