Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP.L) — Company Research

Last Updated: 16 May 2026

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited is a Bermuda-incorporated, London-listed independent oil and gas producer whose entire commercial operation is the Shaikan Field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq — per the dataset's company.description, the company "holds an 80% interest in the Shaikan Field, which covers an area of approximately 280 square kilometers located northwest of Erbil." The shares trade on the London Stock Exchange in pence (GBp) under the ticker GKP.L; financial statements are reported in US dollars. For the fiscal year ended 31 December 2024 — the most recent complete annual reporting period captured in this report's source data — the group produced revenue of $151.208m (+22.42% YoY per revenue_growth_yoy), gross profit of $20.533m, operating income of $4.702m, net income of $7.158m, diluted EPS of $0.0313, operating cash flow of $93.543m and free cash flow of $65.945m on capex of $27.598m. Intraday on 16 May 2026 the stock printed at 190.0 GBp against a 52-week range of 147.0 to 235.0 GBp, capitalising the equity at approximately £413.1 million (per the dataset's price.market_cap field of 413,142,432, which reconciles to the GBp share price multiplied by 217,443,373 shares outstanding and is therefore taken here as pound-sterling-denominated despite the dataset's company.currency field labelling the reporting currency as USD — see Section 6). Enterprise value sits at approximately £335.2 million (per price.enterprise_value). The company carries a 6.68% trailing dividend yield (per price.dividend_yield) on a most-recent ex-dividend date of 9 April 2026 (per calendar.ex_dividend_date). This research note is built entirely from the company's reported dataset and the URLs already populated in the dataset's recent_news[] field, with no analyst opinions, price targets or third-party ratings carried as endorsements. Note: this report's source data contains no SEC 10-K, 20-F or annual-report extract — Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited reports under IFRS via its UK Annual Report and London Stock Exchange RNS announcements as a non-US issuer and is not a US-listed registrant required to file a 10-K. As a result, the Shaikan Field reserves-and-resources progression (1P/2P/3P barrels, 1C/2C/3C contingent resources); production-by-month and average-realised-price progression; oil-export route and offtaker disclosure (Kurdistan Regional Government export pipeline status, local truck-sales channel, in-country buyer concentration); receivable progression and KRG payment history; well-by-well capex and drilling-programme detail; production-sharing-contract economics (royalty, profit-oil split, cost-recovery balance, government back-in); operating-cost-per-barrel ladder; planned capex by project for the current and next fiscal year; reserves-based-lending facility detail; hedging position; tax-jurisdiction detail; and the divisional MD&A narrative that would normally be sourced from a 10-K/20-F or the UK Annual Report are not quoted in this report. Investors should consult Gulf Keystone Petroleum's investor-relations website at gulfkeystone.com directly for those details.

1. Company Snapshot

Name	Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited
Ticker	GKP.L (London Stock Exchange)
Sector / Industry	Energy / Oil & Gas E&P
Country of incorporation	Bermuda
Operating jurisdiction	Kurdistan Region of Iraq (Shaikan Field, 80% working interest)
Reporting currency	US dollar (USD)
Trading currency (LSE)	British pence (GBp)
Market cap	≈ £413.1 million (per dataset price.market_cap of 413,142,432; see Section 6 currency note)
Enterprise value	≈ £335.2 million (per dataset price.enterprise_value)
Latest fiscal-year revenue	$151.208 million (FY2024, year ended 31 December 2024)
Latest fiscal-year net income	$7.158 million (FY2024)
Latest fiscal-year free cash flow	$65.945 million (FY2024)
Cash & equivalents (end-FY2024)	$102.346 million
Total debt (end-FY2024)	$1.507 million
Total equity (end-FY2024)	$512.330 million
Total assets (end-FY2024)	$667.682 million
Employees	433
CEO	Mr. Jonathan R. Harris
Headquarters	Rosebank Centre, Pembroke, Bermuda
Website	gulfkeystone.com
Price (intraday 16 May 2026)	190.0 GBp
Previous close	188.4 GBp
Day open / high / low	188.4 / 192.4 / 188.4 GBp
Volume / 10-day average	385,179 / 502,959 shares
52-week high / low	235.0 GBp / 147.0 GBp
Beta	0.111 (per dataset price.beta)
Trailing dividend yield	6.68% (per dataset price.dividend_yield)
Shares outstanding	217,443,373
Float	178,428,457
Year incorporated	2001

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull case

• FY2024 was a return-to-profit year after a heavily loss-making FY2023. Per the dataset's annual financial series, revenue recovered from $123.514m (FY2023) to $151.208m (FY2024) — a +22.42% year-on-year increase per revenue_growth_yoy — while net income swung from −$11.500m (FY2023) to +$7.158m (FY2024) and operating income swung from −$13.043m to +$4.702m. Diluted EPS reversed from −$0.0528 to +$0.0313 (per the dataset's annual eps_diluted series; eps_growth_yoy recorded as +159.28%).
• Cash generation also reversed dramatically. FY2024 operating cash flow of $93.543m and free cash flow of $65.945m (operating cash flow less $27.598m of capex) compare to FY2023's $51.323m of operating cash flow and −$14.063m of free cash flow (where $65.386m of capex outran $51.323m of OCF). The four-year FCF series is $122.847m (FY2021) → $266.935m (FY2022) → −$14.063m (FY2023) → $65.945m (FY2024).
• The balance sheet is uncomplicated and effectively net-cash. End-FY2024 cash and equivalents of $102.346m against total debt of $1.507m (long-term debt is null in the dataset) gives net cash of approximately $100.839m. Debt-to-equity is 0.0029× (per ratios.debt_to_equity) — i.e., effectively zero financial gearing at year-end 2024. Current ratio is 1.1778× (per ratios.current_ratio).
• Capital return to shareholders resumed in FY2024 in cash form. FY2024 dividends paid were $34.933m (per the dataset's annual dividends_paid series), a +40.8% absolute increase on the FY2023 figure of $24.813m, and FY2024 also recorded $10.087m of stock buybacks (per stock_buybacks) — the only year in the four-year dataset window with a non-null/non-zero buyback figure. The trailing dividend yield is 6.68% (per price.dividend_yield) on a most-recent ex-dividend date of 9 April 2026 (per calendar.ex_dividend_date).
• The free-cash-flow yield is mechanically high relative to the equity capitalisation. Per ratios.fcf_yield, FY2024 free cash flow expressed against market capitalisation is 15.96% — calculated by the dataset's ratio-engine as latest_free_cash_flow / market_cap.
• Operating leverage is very high on revenue swings. The four-year revenue series ($301.389m → $460.113m → $123.514m → $151.208m) sits alongside an operating-income series of ($174.600m → $273.544m → −$13.043m → $4.702m). The implication for an investor with a positive view on the macro-and-policy drivers of Kurdistan oil revenues is that each marginal dollar of recovered revenue should fall heavily to the bottom line given the largely fixed-cost structure visible in the operating-expense line (FY2021–FY2024 operating expenses of $22.133m → $25.958m → $21.226m → $15.831m).
• Beta is exceptionally low at 0.111 (per price.beta). For a single-asset Kurdistan oil producer this is unusual — a function of the historical share-price decoupling from broader UK-equity-index moves rather than any structural defensiveness of the business itself — but it is the figure that yfinance's risk-metrics engine has computed from the trailing share-price series and is what the dataset reports.
• Inside-ownership signal: the dataset's holders.insider_transactions[] array carries ten entries dated 30–31 March 2026, all attributable to Jonathan R. Harris (CEO; four lines), John Hulme (two lines), Clare Kinahan (three lines) and Gabriel Papineau-Legris (one line). The line-item structure (some lines with a USD value and others without; same-share-count pairs for Hulme and Kinahan) reads as vest-and-sell-to-cover or dividend-reinvestment activity rather than open-market discretionary purchases — see Section 9 for the full table. The presence and dating of the lines is itself an inside-activity signal even if the specific buy/sell direction is not separately disclosed in the source data.

Bear case

• The FY2023 collapse is the structural risk. The four-year revenue series ($301.389m → $460.113m → $123.514m → $151.208m) shows a −$336.6m, −73.16% year-on-year revenue contraction from FY2022 to FY2023 (per revenue_growth_yoy), followed by only a partial recovery in FY2024 ($151.208m) that left FY2024 revenue at 32.86% of the FY2022 peak. Net income collapsed from $266.094m to −$11.500m over the same one-year span and the FY2024 recovery to $7.158m is just 2.69% of the FY2022 peak.
• The underlying cause of the FY2023 revenue contraction — and the in-period progression of Kurdistan Region oil export routes, payment receivables and the company's production trajectory — is not disclosed in this report's source data. Investors should consult Gulf Keystone's published Annual Report, half-year results announcement and trading updates for the explanatory MD&A narrative.
• Single-asset, single-jurisdiction concentration. Per the dataset's company.description, the entire commercial operation is the Shaikan Field 80%-working-interest in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The remaining 20% partner, the production-sharing-contract counterparty (Kurdistan Regional Government / federal Government of Iraq commercial structure), the offtake routes and the buyer concentration are not enumerated in this dataset — and any one of those concentration vectors is, on its own, a material risk to forward revenue and cash collection.
• Margin profile is now structurally low at the operating line. FY2024 gross margin of 13.58% (per ratios.gross_margin) and operating margin of 3.11% (per ratios.operating_margin) compare to FY2022 gross and operating margins of 65.09% and 59.45% respectively (computed from the dataset's annual line items). Cost of revenue grew from $104.656m (FY2021) to $130.675m (FY2024) — a +24.86% increase — while revenue over the same span fell from $301.389m to $151.208m, a −49.83% decrease. The composition of cost-of-revenue (cash operating cost vs depreciation, depletion and amortisation vs production-sharing-contract effects) is not disclosed in this report's source data.
• The dataset's headline trailing P/E is misleadingly extreme. The computed ratios.pe_trailing value is 6,070.29× (calc note: current_price / latest_diluted_eps), reflecting the mechanical effect of dividing a 190 GBp share price by a $0.0313 diluted EPS without normalising for the currency mismatch — i.e., it treats the GBp share price as if it were in dollars. The dataset's own price.trailing_pe_yfinance is 38.0× (presumably computed correctly by yfinance using the local-currency EPS). The forward P/E per yfinance is 7.79×, which is well below trailing on the assumption of materially higher forward EPS. Investors should treat the headline ratios.pe_trailing value as a calculation artefact and use the yfinance figures as the cleaner reference points — see Section 6.
• EV/EBITDA proxy is high on the depressed FY2024 operating income. Per ratios.ev_ebitda_proxy, EV / operating income is 71.30× — calc note: "D&A unavailable; conservative proxy; op_income source: yfinance" — i.e., the multiple compresses to a more reasonable level only on a year with higher operating income. P/B is 0.81× (per ratios.pb), i.e., the equity is trading below the book-value of its in-place assets (largely the Shaikan Field's capitalised exploration-and-development cost net of accumulated DD&A).
• Capital-return discipline is a function of revenue. The FY2021–FY2024 dividends-paid series is ($100.000m → $214.789m → $24.813m → $34.933m) — i.e., dividends collapsed by an order of magnitude in FY2023 as revenue collapsed, and have only partly recovered in FY2024. The variable-dividend cadence means the 6.68% trailing yield is contingent on a continuation of FY2024-or-better operating cash flow into FY2025 and beyond; the policy is not a fixed-distribution policy with a coverage cushion.
• Receivable build / cash-conversion risk. End-FY2024 current assets of $138.977m against current liabilities of $117.993m leave a current ratio of 1.18× — workable but not generous. The composition of current assets (cash $102.346m vs trade receivables vs inventory) and the ageing of the trade receivable balance against the company's primary KRG / oil-purchaser counterparty are not disclosed in this report's source data.
• Institutional-coverage disclosure in this dataset is thin. Per holders.institutional_top, only one institutional holder is reported (Albert D Mason Inc — 211,075 shares; 0.1% of share count; value $40.104m as of 31 March 2026 — the value column appears to reflect a unit error: 211,075 shares at the local 190 GBp share price is approximately £0.4m, not £40m, so the field should be treated as a data-quality flag rather than a true market value). The remaining institutional register is not enumerated in this source data — readers should consult the company's RNS holdings-in-company filings.
• Recent newsflow in this dataset contains no Gulf Keystone-specific corporate event. The dataset's recent_news[] field carries ten URLs from the trailing two weeks (5–14 May 2026), all of which are generic UK-penny-stocks roundup articles from Simply Wall St. that mention GKP only in passing (or implicitly, as a constituent of the universe being screened). There is no acquisition, drilling result, production update, dividend declaration, trading-update or executive-appointment release captured in the dataset for the trailing period. Investors should treat this report's Section 11 newsflow as a list of category-level press mentions rather than a substitute for the company's primary RNS feed.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited, per the dataset's company.description, "explores, evaluates, develops, and produces oil and gas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The company holds an 80% interest in the Shaikan Field, which covers an area of approximately 280 square kilometers located northwest of Erbil. It also provides management, support, geological, geophysical, and engineering services. Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited was incorporated in 2001 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda."

In plain terms, the business is a single-asset, single-jurisdiction upstream oil producer. The asset is the Shaikan Field, located approximately northwest of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, covering an area of approximately 280 square kilometres. The company holds an 80% working interest in the licence; the identity of the remaining 20% partner and the production-sharing-contract counterparty are not separately enumerated in the dataset's company.description. The company is operator of the field — the dataset's description references the in-house provision of "management, support, geological, geophysical, and engineering services."

There is no segment split to disclose for Gulf Keystone in the way the term is used for diversified groups: 100% of recorded revenue and effectively 100% of capitalised capex relates to upstream exploration, development and production at Shaikan. The dataset's company.description references neither a midstream pipeline business, a downstream refining or marketing operation, nor any oil-and-gas activity outside the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Because the data condition for the Section 3 Revenue Mix Donut chart (≥2 segment percentages quoted from primary disclosure) is not met — there is only one segment — that visual is intentionally not emitted in this section.

The customer-and-offtake architecture for the Shaikan crude (export pipeline route vs local truck-sales channel; in-country buyer concentration; pricing realisation versus dated-Brent or other benchmark) is not disclosed in this report's source data. Production volumes (gross and net barrels per day), reserves (1P/2P/3P barrels), contingent resources (1C/2C/3C), the cost-of-production-per-barrel ladder and the in-period operating-cost structure (variable vs fixed, lifting cost vs transport tariff vs marketing cost) are likewise not disclosed in this report's source data. Readers should consult the company's published Annual Report and quarterly trading updates at gulfkeystone.com for those numerical primitives.

4. The Business Model

The economic engine is straightforward in structure but volatile in outcome: Gulf Keystone earns revenue when oil is produced from Shaikan, lifted from the wellhead, transported to a sale point under the prevailing export or local-sales arrangements, sold to a buyer and paid for. The structural moats are (a) the in-place 80% working interest in a discovered, producing, large-areal-extent field (approximately 280 sq km per the dataset's company.description); (b) the in-place capitalised exploration-and-development cost base on the balance sheet ($667.682m of total assets at end-FY2024 against $155.352m of total liabilities, giving $512.330m of total equity per the dataset); and (c) the operator status of the field, which gives the company control over drilling pace, well-design choices and operating-cost discipline. The dominant risk-and-return drivers are (a) the prevailing oil-export route and offtake-pricing realisation for Kurdistan crude — a function of Iraqi federal-and-regional commercial-and-political arrangements rather than company-specific decisions; (b) the production rate at Shaikan and the company's ability to fund and execute drilling to maintain or grow it; and (c) the cash-collection cadence on receivables from the field's offtaker(s).

The FY2024 income statement quantifies the model at the group level (all figures in USD millions, per the dataset's annual financials_annual array):

• Revenue: $151.208m (+22.42% YoY per revenue_growth_yoy)
• Cost of revenue: $130.675m → gross profit $20.533m, gross margin 13.58% (per ratios.gross_margin)
• Operating expenses: $15.831m → operating income $4.702m, operating margin 3.11% (per ratios.operating_margin)
• Interest expense: $1.676m
• Pretax income: $7.866m
• Tax provision: $0.708m → effective tax rate 9.0% on pretax income (per dataset's annual tax_provision and pretax_income)
• Net income: $7.158m → net margin 4.73% (per ratios.net_margin); diluted EPS $0.0313
• Operating cash flow: $93.543m; capex: $27.598m → free cash flow $65.945m (FCF margin 43.6% on revenue — i.e., a much stronger cash conversion than the accounting-margin profile would suggest, reflecting a meaningful non-cash element in cost of revenue)
• Total assets: $667.682m; total liabilities: $155.352m; total equity: $512.330m; debt-to-equity 0.0029× (per ratios.debt_to_equity); total debt $1.507m (effectively net-cash at the group level)
• Cash and equivalents: $102.346m → net cash position of approximately $100.839m
• Return on equity 1.40%; return on assets 1.07% (per ratios.roe and ratios.roa) — both are low because they sit against the FY2024 net-income figure of $7.158m, which itself sits against a heavily-impaired FY2023 starting equity base; on a higher-revenue year (e.g., FY2022's $266.094m net income against $572.925m equity) the ROE would have been materially higher.

The four-year operating-margin profile is highly cyclical. Operating margin moved from 57.93% in FY2021 to 59.45% in FY2022 to −10.56% in FY2023 and back to 3.11% in FY2024. The four-year cost-of-revenue series ($104.656m → $160.611m → $115.331m → $130.675m) shows the absolute cost base re-expanding in FY2024 on revenue that has only partially recovered — i.e., cost of revenue per unit of revenue (the inverse of gross margin) widened from 34.91% in FY2022 to 93.37% in FY2023 and stayed elevated at 86.42% in FY2024. The underlying cost structure (lifting cost, transport tariff, marketing cost, DD&A) and the production-sharing-contract effects on revenue are not disclosed in this report's source data.

Capital returns to shareholders have been variable and contingent on operating cash flow:

• FY2021: dividends paid $100.000m; buybacks $0m (per the dataset's stock_buybacks field)
• FY2022: dividends paid $214.789m; buybacks null (no value reported)
• FY2023: dividends paid $24.813m; buybacks $0m
• FY2024: dividends paid $34.933m; buybacks $10.087m

The cumulative four-year dividend distribution is $374.535m, against cumulative four-year free cash flow of $441.664m ($122.847m + $266.935m + (−$14.063m) + $65.945m). The FY2024 distribution (dividends $34.933m + buybacks $10.087m = $45.020m of total cash returned) is comfortably covered by FY2024 free cash flow of $65.945m (coverage of 1.46×). The 6.68% trailing dividend yield (per price.dividend_yield) is therefore a function of a cash-distribution cadence that has materially compressed since the FY2021–FY2022 peak years and is contingent on a continuation of FY2024-or-better cash generation into FY2025.

Government / regulatory / subsidy dependency: Gulf Keystone is not a subsidy-or-tax-credit-driven business in the way a US renewables or EV producer would be. The principal "regulatory" exposure is the production-sharing-contract economics under which the Shaikan licence is held (Kurdistan Regional Government / federal Government of Iraq), the prevailing oil-export commercial arrangements out of the Kurdistan Region, and the company's tax position. The dataset's tax_provision line for FY2024 is $0.708m — i.e., the effective-tax-rate burden at the group level is modest — but the in-country fiscal regime under which the Shaikan field operates and the geometry of the production-sharing contract are not disclosed in this report's source data.

5. Financial Health

Four-year annual trend (USD millions, group, fiscal years ending 31 December)

Metric	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024
Revenue ($m)	301.389	460.113	123.514	151.208
Revenue growth YoY	n/a	+52.66%	−73.16%	+22.42%
Cost of revenue ($m)	104.656	160.611	115.331	130.675
Gross profit ($m)	196.733	299.502	8.183	20.533
Gross margin	65.27%	65.09%	6.62%	13.58%
Operating expenses ($m)	22.133	25.958	21.226	15.831
Operating income ($m)	174.600	273.544	(13.043)	4.702
Operating margin	57.93%	59.45%	−10.56%	3.11%
Interest expense ($m)	11.353	7.655	1.765	1.676
Pretax income ($m)	163.723	265.769	(11.389)	7.866
Tax provision ($m)	(0.874)	(0.325)	0.111	0.708
Net income ($m)	164.597	266.094	(11.500)	7.158
Diluted EPS ($)	0.7304	1.1862	(0.0528)	0.0313
EPS growth YoY	n/a	+62.40%	−104.45%	+159.28%
Operating cash flow ($m)	178.531	374.300	51.323	93.543
Capex ($m)	(55.684)	(107.365)	(65.386)	(27.598)
Free cash flow ($m)	122.847	266.935	(14.063)	65.945
Cash & equivalents ($m)	169.866	119.456	81.709	102.346
Total debt ($m)	100.331	0.710	0.398	1.507
Long-term debt ($m)	99.123	0.000	n/a	n/a
Net (debt) / cash ($m)	69.535	118.746	81.311	100.839
Total equity ($m)	521.704	572.925	547.237	512.330
Total assets ($m)	764.257	744.357	697.146	667.682
Current assets ($m)	355.084	302.031	106.728	138.977
Current liabilities ($m)	98.800	128.561	114.558	117.993
Diluted shares (m)	225.346	224.329	217.992	228.696
Dividends paid ($m)	(100.000)	(214.789)	(24.813)	(34.933)
Buybacks ($m)	0.000	n/a (null)	0.000	(10.087)

Four structural patterns dominate the four-year trend. First, revenue is highly cyclical and the FY2023 drop is the dominant event. Revenue rose from $301.389m in FY2021 to $460.113m in FY2022 (+52.66% YoY), then collapsed to $123.514m in FY2023 (−73.16% YoY per revenue_growth_yoy), then partially recovered to $151.208m in FY2024 (+22.42% YoY). The FY2024 figure is still 32.86% of the FY2022 peak. Second, gross margin and operating margin compressed by an order of magnitude alongside the revenue contraction — gross margin moved from 65.09% (FY2022) to 6.62% (FY2023) to 13.58% (FY2024), and operating margin from 59.45% to −10.56% to 3.11% over the same span — i.e., the cost base did not contract anywhere near as fast as revenue, and operating leverage worked aggressively against shareholders. Third, the balance sheet has been actively de-levered. End-FY2021 long-term debt of $99.123m was paid down to effectively zero by end-FY2022 ($0.000m) and has stayed near zero through FY2023 and FY2024 (long_term_debt reported as null for both years in the dataset; total debt $0.398m and $1.507m respectively). Cash and equivalents moved from $169.866m (end-FY2021) to $119.456m (end-FY2022) to $81.709m (end-FY2023) to $102.346m (end-FY2024), with the FY2022→FY2023 cash drawdown driven by the heavily-loss-making operating year and the FY2023→FY2024 cash build driven by the OCF/FCF recovery and capex pull-back. Fourth, the dividend distribution has tracked operating cash generation closely — FY2022's $214.789m dividend distribution paid out against $374.300m of OCF (57.4% OCF payout); FY2023's $24.813m distribution paid out against $51.323m of OCF (48.3% OCF payout); FY2024's $34.933m of dividends and $10.087m of buybacks together paid out against $93.543m of OCF (48.1% OCF payout).

Note on quarterly data: the dataset's financials_quarterly array is empty ([]). Because the data condition for the Section 5 Revenue + Gross Margin chart (≥3 quarters of both metrics from a primary source) is not met, that visual is intentionally not emitted in this section. The half-year-to-half-year and quarter-to-quarter revenue and margin progression is not disclosed in this report's source data — investors should consult the company's published half-year results announcement and trading updates for in-period numbers.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Currency-unit note. Gulf Keystone Petroleum's shares trade on the London Stock Exchange in British pence (GBp). The company's financial statements, however, are reported in US dollars (per the dataset's company.currency field). The dataset's price.market_cap field of 413,142,432 reconciles to 217,443,373 shares outstanding multiplied by the 190.0 GBp intraday price — i.e., it is denominated in pounds sterling notwithstanding the USD-reporting designation. The price.enterprise_value field of 335,239,040 reconciles similarly (market cap less net cash $100.8m converted at approximately $1.27/£). All P/E, P/S and EV-based multiples below are reported as the dataset's ratio-engine computed them; where the computation mixes a GBp share price with a USD EPS or revenue figure, the resulting headline number requires a currency-mismatch caveat — that caveat is provided in the notes column.

Metric	Value	Source / note
Share price (intraday 16 May 2026)	190.0 GBp	per price.current
Previous close	188.4 GBp	per price.previous_close
Day open / high / low	188.4 / 192.4 / 188.4 GBp	per price.day_open, day_high, day_low
Volume (16 May 2026 intraday)	385,179 shares	per price.volume
10-day average volume	502,959 shares	per price.avg_volume_10d
52-week high / low	235.0 / 147.0 GBp	per price.fifty_two_week_high and price.fifty_two_week_low; specific dates of the high and low are not enumerated in the dataset
Market capitalisation	≈ £413.1 million	per price.market_cap of 413,142,432 (denominated in GBP — see currency-unit note above)
Enterprise value	≈ £335.2 million	per price.enterprise_value of 335,239,040 (GBP, per currency note)
Shares outstanding	217,443,373	per price.shares_outstanding
Float	178,428,457	per price.float_shares — implies non-floated holding of approximately 39.0 million shares (17.9% of share count)
P/E trailing (dataset ratio engine)	6,070.29×	per ratios.pe_trailing — calc note: current_price / latest_diluted_eps. This is a calculation artefact because the dataset divides a 190 GBp share price by a $0.0313 USD diluted EPS without normalising for the GBp/USD currency mismatch. Use the yfinance P/E figures below as the cleaner reference.
P/E trailing (yfinance)	38.0×	per price.trailing_pe_yfinance
P/E forward (yfinance)	7.79×	per price.forward_pe_yfinance
P/B	0.81×	per ratios.pb — calc note: market_cap / total_equity
P/S trailing	2.73×	per ratios.ps_trailing — calc note: market_cap / latest_revenue; same currency-mismatch caveat as P/E trailing
EV / Revenue	2.22×	per ratios.ev_revenue
EV / EBITDA proxy	71.30×	per ratios.ev_ebitda_proxy — calc note: "D&A unavailable; conservative proxy; op_income source: yfinance". This multiple is mechanically high on FY2024's compressed $4.702m operating income; on a higher-operating-income year the proxy would compress materially.
FCF yield	15.96%	per ratios.fcf_yield — calc note: latest_free_cash_flow / market_cap
Trailing dividend yield	6.68%	per price.dividend_yield
Gross margin	13.58%	per ratios.gross_margin
Operating margin	3.11%	per ratios.operating_margin
Net margin	4.73%	per ratios.net_margin
Return on equity	1.40%	per ratios.roe
Return on assets	1.07%	per ratios.roa
Debt / equity	0.0029×	per ratios.debt_to_equity
Current ratio	1.18×	per ratios.current_ratio
Beta	0.111	per price.beta
Short interest (shares short, % of float, days to cover)	Not disclosed in this report's source data	not present in the dataset
Put/call ratio	Not disclosed in this report's source data	not present in the dataset; UK-listed single-stock options are thin compared with the US market

Per the rules of this research note, no commentary on whether these multiples are cheap or expensive is offered.

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

The dataset's recent_news[] field contains no Gulf Keystone-specific drilling, production, reserves, exploration, expansion, licensing, partnership, joint-venture or capital-project announcement. The only material clue to forward capital commitment available from the dataset itself is the FY2024 capex run-rate of $27.598m (per the dataset's annual capex field), which sits below the four-year capex average of approximately $64.0m (FY2021–FY2024 capex of $55.684m, $107.365m, $65.386m, $27.598m) — i.e., FY2024 was a capex-pulled-back year alongside the partial revenue recovery, releasing cash to the dividend and the balance sheet.

Specifically, the following pipeline and forward-build details are not disclosed in this report's source data:

• The planned FY2025 and FY2026 drilling-and-workover programme at Shaikan, including the number of new producer wells, water-injection wells, infill wells or workovers planned, and the associated unit cost per well.
• Reserves-and-resources progression (1P/2P/3P reserves; 1C/2C/3C contingent resources) at year-end 2024 vs year-end 2023, including any year-on-year revisions, additions or write-downs.
• Field-level forward production guidance (gross and net barrels per day) for FY2025 and any indicative trajectory beyond.
• Any in-progress or under-evaluation acquisition, asset swap, divestiture, farm-in, farm-out or new-licence-application activity in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq or elsewhere.
• The forward export-route mix (Kurdistan-Türkiye pipeline restoration status; local truck-sales channel; any new pipeline or trucking corridor) and the in-period KRG payment cadence on outstanding receivables.
• Patents and proprietary technology — these are not applicable in the same sense as for a technology or pharmaceutical company; Gulf Keystone's competitive position is asset-based rather than IP-based.

Readers should consult the company's RNS announcements, operational updates, half-year results and trading updates at gulfkeystone.com for all of the above.

8. Competitive Landscape

Gulf Keystone Petroleum's competitive set is best understood at three levels — and at each level, the dataset itself is silent on named-share or comparative-volume specifics, so this report cannot enumerate market-share percentages of the kind a competitive-bars chart would require.

Level 1 — Other Kurdistan Region of Iraq operators. The most directly comparable peer-set is the small group of public-and-private companies producing oil under production-sharing contracts in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The dataset's company.description and recent_news[] carry no enumeration of those operators or named-share-of-Kurdistan-production data. The identity of the remaining 20% Shaikan working-interest partner is also not disclosed in this report's source data.

Level 2 — UK-listed independent E&Ps. Gulf Keystone is one of a relatively small set of LSE-listed small-cap international exploration-and-production companies. The dataset's recent_news[] contains multiple UK-penny-stocks-roundup articles (see Section 11) that screen a broader universe of small UK-listed companies, but none of them carry named-share percentages or comparative production-and-revenue tables that would support a comparative bar chart.

Level 3 — Global oil-and-gas majors / large independents. As a small-cap single-asset Kurdistan operator, Gulf Keystone is not directly comparable to the global majors (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, Eni, Equinor) or to large independents (ConocoPhillips, EOG Resources, Pioneer Natural Resources / now part of ExxonMobil, Diamondback Energy, Devon Energy). Those entities are referenced here only to delineate the scale gap — Gulf Keystone's $151.208m of FY2024 revenue is approximately 1/2000th to 1/2500th of a global major's annual revenue.

The named-percentage-share data condition for the Section 8 Competitor Share horizontal bars chart (≥3 competitors with named market-share %) is not met from this dataset. That visual is intentionally not emitted in this section.

The principal comparative strengths of Gulf Keystone visible from the dataset itself are (a) the in-place 80% working interest in a large-areal-extent producing field (~280 sq km, per the dataset's company.description), (b) the effectively net-cash balance sheet (end-FY2024 cash $102.346m vs total debt $1.507m), (c) a meaningful FY2024 trailing dividend yield (6.68% per price.dividend_yield) at a time when many small-cap independent E&Ps pay no dividend at all, and (d) operator status on the licence. The principal comparative weaknesses visible from the dataset itself are (a) single-asset, single-jurisdiction concentration, (b) heavily cyclical revenue (FY2021–FY2024 revenue range $123.514m to $460.113m, i.e., a 3.7× max-to-min span across just four years), and (c) thin float and modest 10-day average volume (502,959 shares per price.avg_volume_10d), which can amplify intraday price moves.

9. Leadership and Ownership

CEO and management. The dataset's company.ceo field names Jonathan R. Harris as Chief Executive Officer. The dataset does not enumerate the date of his appointment, his prior career, his current age, his total compensation, his shareholding by share count and percentage, or the rest of the executive committee — those details are not disclosed in this report's source data and should be consulted in the company's UK Annual Report and AGM notice.

The dataset's holders.insider_transactions[] array carries activity dated 30–31 March 2026 attributable to four named individuals:

• Jonathan R. Harris (CEO) — four line items
• John Hulme — two line items
• Clare Kinahan — three line items
• Gabriel Papineau-Legris — one line item

The position, role description and transaction-type fields are blank in the dataset for every line. The line-item pattern (some lines with a USD value and others without; same-share-count pairs for Hulme and Kinahan) reads consistent with vest-and-sell-to-cover, dividend-reinvestment or other scheme-driven activity rather than open-market discretionary purchases — but this interpretation cannot be confirmed from the dataset alone. Readers should consult the company's RNS Director/PDMR shareholding notifications for the authoritative buy/sell direction, the price per share and the resulting post-transaction holding.

Insider transactions table (per the dataset's holders.insider_transactions[])

Insider	Date	Shares	Value (USD)
Harris (Jon)	31 March 2026	264,428	not disclosed
Harris (Jon)	31 March 2026	124,718	$344,595
Harris (Jon)	31 March 2026	77,539	not disclosed
Harris (Jon)	31 March 2026	36,572	$102,511
Hulme (John)	31 March 2026	87,557	not disclosed
Hulme (John)	31 March 2026	87,557	$241,919
Kinahan (Clare)	31 March 2026	57,249	not disclosed
Kinahan (Clare)	31 March 2026	57,249	$155,144
Kinahan (Clare)	31 March 2026	7,597	$20,587
Papineau-Legris (Gabriel)	30 March 2026	72,701	not disclosed

The aggregate share-line activity across the four named individuals on 30–31 March 2026 is 873,167 shares (sum of the ten line items above). Because the transaction-type field is blank for every line, this report does NOT characterise the activity as a net buy or a net sell — the direction of each line is not disclosed in this report's source data.

Institutional ownership. The dataset's holders.institutional_top[] array contains a single entry:

Holder	Shares	% held	Reported value	As of
Albert D Mason Inc	211,075	0.10%	$40,104,250 (data-quality flag — see note)	31 March 2026

Data-quality note on the institutional holding: the value field of $40,104,250 against 211,075 shares implies a value-per-share of approximately $190 per share. The current GBp share price is 190.0 — so the value field appears to have been computed by multiplying share count by the local pence price as if pence were dollars (or, equivalently, as if pence were pounds), producing a market-value figure inflated by approximately 100×. The realistic at-market value of a 211,075-share position at 190.0 GBp is approximately £401,000, or approximately $510,000 at typical recent GBP/USD rates. The field is retained here in its as-reported form for transparency. The remainder of the institutional register and any in-period top-holder changes are not disclosed in this report's source data — readers should consult the company's RNS notifications of major holdings (TR-1) and any 13F-equivalent disclosure for the authoritative position.

10. Risks and Challenges

The risks visible from this report's source data fall into eight categories.

Single-asset, single-jurisdiction concentration. Per the dataset's company.description, 100% of Gulf Keystone's commercial operation is the Shaikan Field 80%-working-interest in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. There is no second producing asset, no second producing jurisdiction and no diversification across upstream play-type, midstream infrastructure or downstream marketing. A field-level operational disruption, a political-or-commercial dispute affecting the company's ability to lift, transport and sell crude, or a security incident affecting the Erbil area would directly impact 100% of revenue and cash flow.

Revenue cyclicality and severe operating leverage. The four-year revenue series ($301.389m → $460.113m → $123.514m → $151.208m) shows a single-year −73.16% revenue contraction (FY2022 → FY2023 per revenue_growth_yoy). The corresponding operating-margin compression (from 59.45% to −10.56%) demonstrates that the cost base does not flex anywhere near as fast as revenue, so a forward revenue shock would mechanically transmit to the operating line at high gearing. The principal underlying drivers of the FY2023 contraction — and the implications for forward revenue stability — are not disclosed in this report's source data.

Production-sharing-contract / fiscal-regime risk. The Shaikan licence is held under a production-sharing contract whose royalty, profit-oil split, cost-recovery balance, government back-in option and tax treatment are the principal determinants of how much of each gross dollar of oil sales reaches Gulf Keystone shareholders. The geometry of that contract and any in-period renegotiation, dispute or government action affecting it are not disclosed in this report's source data — investors should consult the company's Annual Report and any associated KRG / federal Government of Iraq commercial-arrangement disclosures.

Counterparty / receivable / payment risk. Single-buyer or near-single-buyer offtake of Kurdistan crude creates a single-counterparty receivable concentration. The ageing of the trade-receivable balance against the offtaker and the cash-collection cadence are not disclosed in this report's source data.

Export-route / infrastructure risk. The mechanical ability to move Shaikan crude from wellhead to international market is a function of pipeline availability, trucking corridors and in-country political-and-commercial arrangements that are outside Gulf Keystone's direct control. The current status of those routes, the volume split between them and any in-period disruption are not disclosed in this report's source data.

Oil-price risk. The dataset records neither the company's realised oil price by month or quarter nor any hedging position. As a price-taker on the underlying commodity, Gulf Keystone's revenue line is exposed to dated-Brent (or applicable benchmark) moves filtered through whatever quality, location and contractual differentials apply to its Kurdistan crude.

Capital-allocation and dividend-sustainability risk. FY2024 dividends paid of $34.933m and buybacks of $10.087m together represent $45.020m of cash returned to shareholders, against $65.945m of free cash flow — a comfortable 1.46× coverage. But the four-year dividend series ($100.000m → $214.789m → $24.813m → $34.933m) is highly variable, and the trailing-yield headline of 6.68% (per price.dividend_yield) is contingent on the FY2024 cash-generation trajectory persisting or improving. A forward year in which OCF or FCF falls back toward FY2023 levels would mechanically pressure the distribution.

Capital-structure flexibility. The end-FY2024 balance sheet is effectively net-cash ($102.346m of cash vs $1.507m of total debt). That is a strength in stable years, but the historical capital structure (end-FY2021 long-term debt of $99.123m subsequently paid down to zero through FY2022) demonstrates that the company has used balance-sheet leverage in the past and would have headroom to do so again in support of capex, acquisitions or distributions — a discretionary decision that is not, by itself, a risk but is a forward variable.

Disclosure-coverage gap in this report's source data. This report's source data contains no SEC 10-K, 20-F or annual-report extract. As a result, the Shaikan Field reserves-and-resources progression; production-by-month and average-realised-price progression; oil-export-route and offtaker disclosure (Kurdistan Regional Government export pipeline status, local truck-sales channel, in-country buyer concentration); receivable progression and KRG payment history; well-by-well capex and drilling-programme detail; production-sharing-contract economics (royalty, profit-oil split, cost-recovery balance, government back-in); operating-cost-per-barrel ladder; planned capex by project for the current and next fiscal year; reserves-based-lending facility detail; hedging position; tax-jurisdiction detail; and the divisional MD&A narrative are not disclosed in this report's source data. Readers should consult Gulf Keystone Petroleum's investor-relations website at gulfkeystone.com directly for those details before forming a view on the forward outlook.

11. Recent Developments

The dataset's recent_news[] field carries ten URLs published between 5 May 2026 and 14 May 2026. None of the ten entries is a Gulf Keystone-specific corporate event — every entry is a Simply Wall St. weekly-roundup article that screens a universe of UK penny stocks or UK growth stocks, in which GKP appears (where it appears at all) only as a constituent of the universe being screened. There is no acquisition, divestiture, drilling-result, production-update, dividend-declaration, trading-update, executive-appointment or strategic-partnership announcement captured in the dataset for the trailing two-week window. The entries are listed below in reverse-chronological order with their URLs copied byte-for-byte from the dataset's recent_news[].url fields.

• 14 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "3 UK Penny Stocks With Market Caps Under £70M To Watch" — weekly roundup-style coverage of UK small-cap stocks against the backdrop of FTSE 100 weakness on China trade data. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/3-uk-penny-stocks-market-140518006.html
• 14 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "UK Penny Stocks To Consider In May 2026" — companion weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/uk-penny-stocks-consider-may-070519614.html
• 13 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "3 UK Penny Stocks With Market Caps Over £90M" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-uk-penny-stocks-market-140508293.html
• 13 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "UK Penny Stocks To Watch In May 2026" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-penny-stocks-watch-may-070515334.html
• 12 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "Supreme And 2 Other Promising UK Penny Stocks" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/supreme-2-other-promising-uk-140517594.html
• 12 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "Promising UK Penny Stocks To Watch In May 2026" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/promising-uk-penny-stocks-watch-070452464.html
• 7 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "Eleco And 2 Other Promising UK Penny Stocks" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/eleco-2-other-promising-uk-140535738.html
• 6 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "Discover 3 UK Penny Stocks With Market Caps Over £10M" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/discover-3-uk-penny-stocks-140523582.html
• 6 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "James Halstead Leads The Charge Among 3 UK Penny Stocks" — weekly-roundup article. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/james-halstead-leads-charge-among-070512592.html
• 5 May 2026 — Simply Wall St.: "UK Growth Stocks With High Insider Ownership" — screen-style article on UK growth companies with high insider-ownership signals. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/uk-growth-stocks-high-insider-063538597.html

The most-recent corporate-event signal visible from the dataset itself is the 9 April 2026 ex-dividend date (per calendar.ex_dividend_date) — see Section 12. Any post-9 April 2026 dividend-payment confirmation, AGM notice, half-year trading update, drilling-and-production update or other Gulf Keystone-specific RNS announcement that would normally appear in a six-month newsflow recap is not present in this report's source data and should be consulted directly on the company's RNS feed at gulfkeystone.com.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

The dataset's calendar object carries the following dated items:

Item	Date	Source
Most recent ex-dividend date	9 April 2026	per calendar.ex_dividend_date
Next dividend payment date	Not disclosed in this report's source data	per calendar.dividend_date (null)
Next earnings / results date	Not disclosed in this report's source data	per calendar.next_earnings_date (null)

The cadence of Gulf Keystone's forthcoming reporting events (interim results, full-year results, AGM, operational updates, drilling-result announcements) is not enumerated in this dataset. Investors should consult the company's published financial calendar at gulfkeystone.com for the authoritative scheduling of the next half-year results announcement, the next full-year results announcement, the AGM date, and any planned operational or trading update.

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Related links

• ChartsView live charts: /live-charts
• ChartsView economic calendar: /economic-calendar
• ChartsView forum: /forum/index
• ChartsView blog: /blog

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Disclaimer. This research note is provided for information and education only. It is not investment advice and is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. All figures are drawn from the dataset and primary URLs cited above and reflect the company's reported data as of the dataset's generation timestamp. No analyst price targets, buy/sell/hold ratings or consensus-estimate opinions are carried or endorsed. Readers should consult the company's published Annual Report, RNS announcements and a regulated financial adviser before acting on any of the information contained in this note. Investments in single-asset, single-jurisdiction oil and gas producers carry concentrated commercial, political, operational and oil-price risk, and past financial performance is not indicative of future results.