14th Jan 2014 12:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ireland-based company Dragon Oil PLC said Tuesday that it completed fewer wells than planned in 2013, due to delays in new rigs operations and maintenance of existing rigs, but still reported a strong increase in the average daily production rate of oil per day for the year.
In a trading update before the release of its full-year results on February 18, the oil and gas exploration and development company which operates in Turkmenistan, said that average gross production grew by 9.1% to 73,750 barrels of oil per day in the year ended December 31 2013, compare with 67,600 in 2012.
It said that the average daily production rate for the month of December was approximately 72,900 barrels of oil per day.
"The growth achieved is significant given that we only had one rig for the full year and the other rig for part of the year operational in the Cheleken Contract Area," said Chief Executive Officer Abdul Al Khalifa in a statement.
Dragon Oil said that it sold 11.5 million barrels of crude oil in 2013, marginally lower than the 11.6 million barrels sold in 2012. It said that the slightly lower volume sold over the previous year was mainly due to lower entitlement, offset by higher production.
Dragon Oil said that encouraging results from the artificial lift application, and initial positive response from the ongoing water injection pilot project, have helped achieve a 93% reserves replacement against the year's gross production.
It said that the 2013 year-end oil and condensate reserves amounted to 675 million barrels, compared with 677 barrels in 2012.
In the next couple of years Dragon Oil said it will be significantly expanding the application of jet pumps and introducing water injection at a number of platforms.
The group said that, due to diversification efforts in recent years, its asset portfolio now includes four exploration assets in Tunisia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt.
"The 100,000 bopd production target remains in our sights to be reached in 2015 and then we aim to maintain the average daily production of 100,000 bopd as a plateau from 2016 for at least five years," Chief Executive Officer Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa said in a statement.
The group said that in coming weeks, it expects four rigs to be drilling in the Dzheitune (Lam) and Dzhygalybeg (Zhdanov) fields, with two more rigs expected to arrive later in the year.
Dragon Oil said that capital expenditure on infrastructure, drilling and exploration assets amounted to USD328 million for 2013, up from the USD382 million a year earlier.
Shares in the oil and gas company were trading 0.5% lower midday Tuesday, at 570.50 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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