Herald/Scotland5 Feb 2019 08:08
SHARES in Hurricane Energy have plunged 6.5 per cent after the company suffered
a new complication in its preparations to start production from a giant field West of Shetland.
Hurricane said a rope being used in the installation of the production system for the bumper Lancaster field had failed, without elaborating on how.
The company said there were no injuries to personnel or damage to the production facilities as a result of the rope failing.
However, the Aoka Mizu floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) that has been developed for the field has returned to the Cromarty Firth while Hurricane awaits delivery of a new rope.
The start up of Lancaster is still targeted for the first half of this year but with shares in the company falling sharply in morning trading investors appeared rattled by news of the rope break.
The update underlined the challenges firms face operating in the stormy deeps off Shetland.
It came two weeks after Aim-listed Hurricane announced a rope that was being used in the installation of the production facilities had become snagged.
The company said then that due to a predicted deterioration in weather conditions, the Aoka Mizu had returned to the Cromarty Firth to complete remediation work on the relevant facilities.
The developments may be regarded with concern in the North Sea oil and gas
industry and the City. Hurricane’s exploits have generated excitement among oil and gas firms and the investment community.
The company has enjoyed a series of
drilling successes which have encouraged hopes there could be enough oil and gas to be found West of Shetland to provide a new lease of life for the industry.
The Lancaster field alone is estimated to contain more than 500 million barrels oil.
Founded by geologist Robert Trice in his garden shed in 2005, Hurricane has focused on a layer of granite that lies beneath the
sandstone on which most North Sea drillers have concentrated.
Hurricane raised around £400 million from investors in 2017 to fund work on an early production system (EPS) for Lancaster.
The Spirit Energy business, provided dramatic proof of the scale of interest in Hurricane’s acreage last year when it bought into acreage containing the Warwick find and agreed to fund a $180m drilling campaign.
Wood Mackenzie noted recently that
growing interest in the West of Shetland area appeared to be fuelling a recovery in
exploration activity in the North Sea. This fell to record lows following the slump in
the crude price between summer 2014 and late 2016.
Total helped generate interest in the area in September when it a made a major gas discovery with the Glendronach well. The French oil giant last week said it had made a find east of Aberdeen that experts think could be the biggest gas discovery in the North Sea for 11 years, with China’s CNOOC and Edison of Italy. The Glengorm find is estimated to contain 250 mi
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