16th Jul 2015 08:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ithaca Energy Inc on Thursday said production fell in the second quarter of the year and warned it will fall further in the second half due to maintenance work, but said its hedging programme is allowing the company to achieve a price substantially above Brent spot prices.
The North Sea oil and gas operator produced 12,667 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter of 2015, down from the 14,400 barrels per day produced in the same period a year earlier.
"The company's producing assets continued to perform well over the course of the second quarter of 2015, with solid operational uptime achieved across the main fields," said the company.
First half production averaged 12,578 barrels of oil equivalent per day, above its production guidance of 12,000 barrels of oil per day. Ithaca said it expects production to average 12,000 barrels a day in 2015, slightly lower than current production due to planned maintenance shutdowns in the second half.
"As previously highlighted, production in the third quarter of the year will be below the average guidance level for the year as a result of planned maintenance shutdown activities on the host facilities serving a number of the company's fields," said Ithaca.
"Most significantly, there will be an approximate two-month planned shutdown of the Cook field during the third quarter for the execution of life extension works on the Anasuria floating production and offloading facility that serves the field," it added.
In terms of sales, Ithaca said it benefited from 10,187 barrels of oil per day being hedged at USD96 per barrel, way above the Brent oil price which was trading at around USD57 per barrel Thursday.
At the end of June, net drawn debt stood at USD788 million from its total debt facility of USD950 million. Based on current oil prices, Ithaca is expecting that net drawn debt figure to be standing at USD800 million by the end of 2015.
Ithaca will release its financial results for the second quarter on August 13.
The company's shares were trading up 2.3% to 45.50 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
IAE.L