14th May 2014 07:47
LONDON (Alliance News) - Premier Oil PLC Wednesday said its production for the first four months of 2014 is up on the previous year, and it has maintained its full-year production guidance as increases in production from its UK and Vietnam operations offset a fall in production from its Pakistan and Mauritania operations.
The FTSE 250 oil and gas producer said its average production for the four months ended April 30 was up 13% to 65,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 58,000 barrels, and it has reiterated its full-year guidance of an average between 58,000 and 63,000 barrels, after recognising planned maintenance operations in the second half of the year.
The company said that, in the UK, strong production from its Huntingdon field was interrupted for repairs in mid-April and then saw an unplanned shut down on April 26 due to problems on a separate gas export route operated by BP PLC. However, these problems were resolved and production from the field restarted on May 11, with production now at full capacity, Premier Oil said.
Despite the delays, overall UK production jumped 67% to 20,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 12,200 barrels and on all operations in the UK except Huntingdon, production exceeded expectations during the period.
Premier Oil said that in Vietnam production increased 13% to 17,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 15,100 barrels on successful initiatives to increase its operational efficiency, including the installation of additional generating capacity.
It added that production from its Indonesia operations were largely flat at 14,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day, but gas sales from its Natuna Sea Block A site were ahead of expectations.
However, the company said production from its Pakistan & Mauritania operations fell 14% to 14,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 16,400 barrels of oil per day.
The company added that it plans to further increase production as its projects Dua in Vietnam, Pelikan and Naga in Indonesia and Solan in the UK are targeting first oil or gas later this year, and its 2014 exploration campaign has started off strongly with an oil discovery at Kuda Laut in Indonesia and a gas discovery at Kadanwari in Pakistan.
In February, the company announced a worse-than-expected fall in pretax profit for 2013 on exceptional costs and impairments, although it achieved a strong increase in revenues and said it was positive on its future outlook.
Premier Oil said at the time that pretax profit fell 21% to USD285.4 million for the full year 2013 from USD359.9 million in the previous year, despite a 6.4% increase in revenue to USD1.50 billion from USD1.41 billion in 2012.
According to analyst consensus figures provided by Premier Oil in February, the company was expected to announce a 17% decrease in pretax profit to USD300 million for the twelve month period. The analyst consensus figures also showed a 7.8% increase in sales revenues to USD1.52 billion for 2013.
Wednesday's news also comes after the company announced in April that it had rejected a bid by Ophir Energy PLC to merge the two businesses together.
"The Ophir board believed that merging the two businesses provided the potential to create a well-funded, re-focussed, full cycle exploration and production company. However, the proposal was subsequently rejected by the Premier Board," Ophir said in a statement at the time.
Premier Oil shares were up 0.6% to 350.00 pence, putting it in the top FTSE 250 risers during early trading on Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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