The shares of Ithaca Energy Inc. (CVE:IAE), (PINK:IACAF) have a rather dubious performance lately, bouncing up and down without  being able to make substantial gains or losses. Maybe, this is due to the somewhat controversial news that the company has been issuing recently.

Ithaca_Energy_-_Logo.pngThe latest, for the time being, move of the shares was a positive one. IAE went 5.4% up on a large turnover exceeding four times the average. The stock ended the session at $2.55 on the background of 4.48M shares traded.

The company, as we mentioned, has been issuing a bit controversial announcements this month. In early March, it informed to have commenced drilling a second production well on the Jacky field located within the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea. Ithaca is trying to increase production as a part of its management strategy.

Ithaca_Energy_-_Chart.pngLast Tuesday, a negative event was released. The company announced that the drilling of the J03 well on Jacky has been temporarily suspended due to mechanical issues on the Energy Enhancer jack-up drilling unit.

Moreover, at Beatrice Alpha property, production start up from work-over well A28 has been delayed, following a failure of a down-hole packer. The well is now expected to commence flowing not earlier than the beginning of April.

As the company states, these unfavorable developments will probably reduce the fore-casted Q1 2011 Ithaca net production by approximately 20%.

On Friday, in another release Ithaca decided to clarify the impact that the fiscal changes in the UK will have on the company’s financial position. Ithaca’s officials are convinced that the “limited decommissioning liabilities” of the company will minimize its exposure to the announced tax changes in the UK.

Time will show whether this is really so, or Ithaca will really have some troubles aroused by the changed fiscal policy of the UK and by the fore-mentioned reduction of the production.

For the time being, however, the company’s future looks far from insecure, taking into consideration the solid financial condition that Ithaca has. In the end of last September, the company reported rising revenue and gross profit, as well as a net income of $10.45M for the third quarter of 2010.

In addition, Ithaca had over $193M in cash and equivalents. Compare these figures to the financial statements of most of the other Canadian companies operating on the stock markets. You will easily notice that Ithaca has a clear advantage over them in terms of financial stability.