19th May 2006 11:30
Premier Oil PLC19 May 2006 PREMIER OIL PLC "Premier" or "the Company" AGM Statement The following statement was made by Sir David John, Chairman of Premier Oil PLC,at today's Annual General Meeting of the Company: "One year into the new management team I am delighted to report they have madeexcellent progress on all fronts with production ahead of plan, a 10 per centincrease in Premier's resource base, exploration and appraisal success and wellexecuted development projects - most notably with Premier's first oil from WestAfrica which came on-stream in February. This year's programme has begun with two successes in Indonesia and the Group islooking forward to the outcome of its current drilling in Vietnam. Safety ofcourse, remains the highest priority and our record on accidents and lost timeincidents shows five years of continuous improvement. Premier's good operational performance and stronger oil and gas prices producedan excellent financial result with profits up 75%, a healthy cash flow and acontinuing strong balance sheet. With rising production and further increases incommodity prices, we look forward to another strong financial performance in2006. Looking forward, operations have now been re-organised under four regional teamsand it is exciting to see the development of each of our core regionalbusinesses. Our North Sea group is now based in Stavanger in Norway and isalready pursuing its first Norwegian development project, the Froy field. OurWest Africa team has new production from the Chinguetti field in Mauritania andwill shortly be drilling in Guinea-Bissau. Our Pakistan/Middle East team isnegotiating new gas contracts in Pakistan and later this month will beappraising one of last year's discoveries in Egypt. The Asia group based inJakarta and Singapore, has had exploration success already this year, completedan acquisition from ExxonMobil in North Sumatra and is currently explorationdrilling in Vietnam. With such an active programme around the world and a good operational start tothe year I am confident Premier will achieve another strong performance thisyear." 19 May 2006 ENQUIRIESPremier Oil plc Tel: 020 7730 1111Simon LockettTony Durrant Pelham PRJames Henderson Tel: 020 7743 6673Gavin Davis Tel: 020 7743 6677 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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