(Alliance News) - Hurricane Energy PLC on Wednesday reported a strong start to life for the Lancaster field early production system in the UK North Sea.
Hurricane said the system has continued to achieve "strong" production, with well productivity beating initial expectations.
In the third quarter of 2019, production was 15,400 barrels of oil per day, well above guidance of 9,000 barrels, while fourth-quarter production was 11,800 barrels compared to 11,000 barrels guidance.
For 2019, Hurricane expects to reported 3.0 million barrels of oil of production, equivalent to around 12,900 barrels per day. Production from Lancaster first started on May 11. Revenue is set to be USD170 million.
Hurricane expects to report 2019 financial results on March 19.
Chief Executive Robert Trice said: "The start-up of the Lancaster early production system has gone very well, with 2019 production exceeding the guidance that we provided when we announced first oil. We've also had a strong start to 2020 with the 6 Well test continuing on Lancaster, delivering steady production. A return to two-well production is imminent."
Trice also noted recent share price weakness, saying there is no operational reason for this. Shares were up 14% on Wednesday morning at 24.52 pence, but have halved since the end of November.
"The production performance of the Lancaster early production system wells is above our base case expectations and we remain on target to provide an update at the capital markets day in March whilst continuing to make progress towards the next operational steps for our portfolio," said Trice.
"Hurricane remains focussed on delivering operational progress, on budget and on schedule, and, in so doing, delivering returns to shareholders. We look forward to continuing to update the market with quarterly production figures, and will announce any material variations to expectations as required."
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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