Mike Wagstaff, chief executive of Venture Production, said the North Sea-focused oil and gas firm was hungry to buy more assets in the mature province after achieving record profits in the first half.

Mike Wagstaff, chief executive of Venture Production, said the North Sea-focused oil and gas firm was hungry to buy more assets in the mature province after achieving record profits in the first half.

Hailing strong growth in production, which was helped by a series of acquisitions, Wagstaff said Venture was ready to play a part in the consolidation likely to affect the sector, and could pay large sums of money to do so.

Venture, which specialises in bringing so-called stranded assets that were too small to excite the majors into production, is sitting on £350m debt facilities. These were arranged before the credit crunch deepened, making banks increasingly reluctant to lend.

With the company's North Sea fields now generating huge amounts of cash, Wagstaff said: "We could write a cheque for half a billion pounds without requiring any additional financing."

However, after deciding not to bid for the big basket of assets that Shell and Exxon Mobil put up for sale last year, Venture may prefer to continue its policy of expanding through small deals.

Wagstaff believes the company's asset base and expertise in developing smaller fields allows it to make money on deals that may not be attractive to others.

The sustained boom in oil and gas prices could result in more assets coming up for sale. Small firms that have acreage but no production could struggle to raise the money needed to develop projects.

As Venture has been buffeted by a series of production reverses in the past, Wagstaff said it was "great to be back on the growth path in the first half" in the six months to June. Pre-tax profits jumped to £113m, up 67% on the first half last year.

Venture benefited from a 50% increase in the average price realised for its output, from £22.41 per barrel oil equivalent to £33.12.

The firm increased average daily production by 8% to 45,534 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It expects to start pumping from the Chestnut field in the third quarter.

Production for the year is expected to be in line with previous guidance, "albeit within the bottom quarter of that range i.e. 45,000 to 47,000 boepd".

Thanks to tax breaks available for development spending in the North Sea, Venture does not expect to pay any taxes until later this year. Nevertheless, Wagstaff said the government should not try to increase the taxes paid by North Sea firms.

"The government is desperate for money and desperate people do desperate things, but it would go against what Gordon Brown promised last time he put taxes up when he said he would not put taxes up in the life of this Parliament.

"He has been up to Aberdeen to exhort us to produce more oil and gas and it's inconsistent with that to take it away on the other side."