(Alliance News) - Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd on Wednesday said oil production at its Shaikan field in Iraq hit its highest annual average in 2020, and is set to beat that this year with its new guidance laid out.
Shares in Gulf Keystone were up 4.2% at 150.00 pence each in London in morning trading.
Gulf Keystone Petroleum is an oil & gas exploration and production firm which operates the Shaikan field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The firm said average gross production throughout 2020 at Shaikan field was 36,625 barrels of oil per day, which was the highest annual average production rate to date from the field.
The increase was due to debottlenecking work done on the PF-1 plant, which delivered production capacity in excess of 30,000 bopd.
Shaikan is currently producing around 44,000 bopd.
December crude oil sales to the Kurdistan Regional Government increased 65% from the previous month to USD18.0 million. This is due to increased production and the recent improvement in the oil price.
Brent crude was trading at USD56.84 a barrel on Wednesday morning, up from USD50.29 a barrel on December 14.
Guidance for 2021 is set between 40,000 to 44,000 bopd average gross production.
Guidance will be updated once conditions allow well workovers and the restart of the drilling programme to achieve 55,000 bopd, the company added.
The company noted that, as announced last Monday, Jon Harris is to join as Chief Executive this coming Monday.
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP)