US-based oil and gas company SeaDragon, which specializes in the production of Squalene, an oily hydrocarbon commonly used in moisturisers, has signed a new supply agreement.

The company has entered into two new supply agreements with operators of vessels to supply frozen shark liver oil, a key ingredient in squalene.

Chief executive Ross Keeley, told Business Week, “Our squalene operations have demonstrated their potential, when not constrained by the supply of raw materials.The considerable effort we have made to overcome prior supply difficulties has been rewarded with a strong trading performance for the 2015 financial year, and the new supply agreements we have announced today.”

The new supply agreements have the potential to keep the company’s squalene operations running through to late 2016, the company said.

SeaDragon faces a challenge ensuring enough shark liver oil because of a “significant contraction in sharks being recovered,” Keeley said. Amid growing concern about fishing practices such as finning, where shark fins were sold in Asia as a delicacy but the carcasses typically throwing overboard, shark has fallen in value to less than half what it was a year ago.

SeaDragon does not condone finning, Keeley insisted adding that the supply agreements were with reputable vessels targeting deep-water species in international waters.