By Alex MacDonald

LONDON--U.S. oil and gas explorer Empyrean Energy PLC (EME.LN) said Wednesday that its production fell in the first financial quarter, even as Marathon Oil Corp (MRO), the operator of its flagship Sugarloaf field in Texas, continues to bring more wells into production.

Empyrean, which has oil and gas exploration assets in Texas and California, said it produced 77,159 barrels of oil equivalent in the financial quarter ending June 30, down 5.2% compared with the previous quarter and 6% compared with the same quarter a year before.

Empyrean has a 3% stake in Sugarloaf project, which is located in the prolific Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. It said that Marathon Oil, the operator, is working on improving the efficiency of its drilling operations.

Empyrean said there were 154 gross producing wells at Sugarloaf as of Sept. 15, up from 128 gross producing wells at the end of June and 121 gross producing wells at the end of March.

Empyrean Energy was recently up 0.7% at 0.19 pence a share, giving a market capitalization of GBP41 million or $67 million.

Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com

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