21st Jun 2019 09:21
(Alliance News) - Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd, ahead of its annual general meeting, said Friday it expects its 2019 production to be at the lower end of guidance due to changes in the schedule of its drilling programme at the Shaikan oil field in Iraq.
The oil & gas firm's guidance for the year stands at 32,000 to 38,000 barrels of oil per day.
In addition, Gulf Petroleum plans to initiate a share purchase programme should shareholders approve at the meeting.
At Shaikan field, Gulf Petroleum has completed workovers on wells SH-1 and SH-3, leading to doubled production from SH-1 to 7,800 barrels and SH-3 production rising by 40% to 6,200 barrels of oil per day.
The company has started its drilling programme following the spudding of well SH-12.
Also, Gulf Petroleum plans to spud well SH-9 in the fourth quarter of 2019, and will aim to assess the feasibility of gas reinjection into the Jurassic formation, instead of an originally planned production well.
As part of the work programme, PF-1 was shut down in early June for maintenance and the installation of equipment needed for the 55,000 barrels per day de-bottlenecking project.
The production facility is expected to be offline for 15 to 20 days. In addition, the export pipeline for PF-1 has been installed, with the exports pumps and associated control currently being fitted.
The pipeline is expected to be operational within the third quarter of 2019.
Gulf Petroleum reported average gross production for 2019 to date at 29,993 barrels of oil per day. The company expects to meet its 55,000 barrels per day target in the second quarter of 2020, instead of the first quarter due to the revised timeframe.
"Operational activity has intensified and good progress is being made across all fronts of our Shaikan expansion programme, including investment into the 75,000 bopd expansion and the gas re-injection project. We are pleased to have started the drilling campaign, in addition to seeing promising results with the workovers drilled at SH-1 and SH-3, both of which have increased in output significantly, and all of which serve to achieve our near term production targets," said Chief Executive Officer Jon Ferrier.
Shares in Gulf Petroleum were up 2.8% at 235.95 pence on Friday.
Related Shares:
Gulf Keystone Petroleum