UK's EnQuest trims higher end of output forecast after Magnus outage

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Britain's EnQuest narrowed its annual output forecast towards the lower end on Thursday, blaming a five-week outage at its Magnus field caused by a third-party infrastructure disruption, even as the North Sea-focused oil producer swung back to half-year profit.

The company tightened its 2026 production expectation to 41,000 to 43,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with 41,000 to 45,000 boepd earlier, while first-half output rose 9% to 41,544 boepd.

EnQuest has sought to grow its newer Southeast Asian assets as North Sea producers face uncertainty over Britain's oil and gas policy, following a windfall tax regime that drew industry criticism and raised concerns about investment.

However, there have been signals that the new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham's government wants to be more pragmatic about the country's oil and gas policy.

"We are hopeful that the change in political leadership will be accompanied by a renewed focus on competitiveness, investment and energy security," EnQuest CEO Amjad Bseisu said in a statement.

The company posted an adjusted pretax profit of $54.6 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $5.3 million last year.

(Reporting by Ankita Bora in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Mrigank Dhaniwala)