Offshore staff
LONDON – Premier Oil and Chrysaor Holdings plan to rename themselves Harbour Energy, assuming their respective shareholders approve the proposed merger.
According to Premier, the new company will be the largest London-listed oil and independent in terms of production and reserves with competitive operating costs.
It will also have a lower carbon intensity than the average UK oil and gas producer, the company claimed, with a commitment to achieving ‘Net Zero’ greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
Premier added in a brief operations update that batch drilling has started of the four development wells from the recently installed Tolmount platform in the UK southern North Sea. First gas should follow in 2Q 2021.
The company anticipates 2021 operating costs of $15/boe, and capex of around $275 million. Premier’s net debt at the end of November was $2.06 billion.
Chrysaor expects to deliver full-year production from its North Sea fields this year of 174,000 boe/d, declining to 140-155,000 boe/d in 2021. This is due partly to asset shutdowns with COVID-19 forcing planned maintenance this year to be deferred.
At the J-Area fields in the UK central North Sea, the partners are considering adding a second drilling rig in late 2021 to appraise the Talbot discovery and to drill the Dunnottar exploration prospect.
Output from the Greater Britannia Area has benefitted from strong uptime and a better than expected well performance from the Brodgar. The Callanish F5 well should come onstream in 1Q 2021.
In the AELE (Armada, Everest, Lomond and Erskine) area, the LAD infill development well at Everest East should start drilling in 3Q 2021.
As for Chrysaor’s non-operated fields, Total is working a potential life extension program for the Elgin Franklin area, where an infill drilling and well intervention campaign is in progress.
At the Buzzard field, operated by CNOOC, Phase 1 infill drilling has delivered good results, but Phase 2 drilling results so far have been toward the lower end of expectations. Drilling has now paused, with further wells and side track activity held over until after the Phase 2 wells have come onstream next December.
Apache Corp.’s exploration activity in the Beryl area Tertiary play has led to two successful wells on the Solar and Corona prospects.
Chrysaor forecasts total capex in 2021 of $750-$850 million, mainly covering drilling and development at the J-Area, AELE, Beryl and Buzzard, and including around $170 million for decommissioning.
12/16/2020
