UK Tolmount First Steel Cut Soon: Premier
UK independent Premier Oil has provided an update for the period up to November 15 2018.
Development of its Tolmount Main gas field in the UK North Sea – sanctioned in August – is progressing to plan, it said. Italian contractor Rosetti Marino has completed the award of the main long lead packages for the platform, with first steel on track to be cut next month. A drilling contract was awarded to Ensco two months ago and the first of the four development wells are due to come on-stream during 4Q2020, it said. Premier said three months ago that, once running, production of up to 300mn ft3/d gross was expected at peak. The Tolmount East appraisal well is due to spud mid-2019.
On its Indonesian Natuna Sea Block A, development of the Premier-operated Bison, Iguana and Gajah-Puteri (BIG-P) gas fields continues within budget and on schedule. Fabrication of the subsea structures began in October, and drilling of the BIG-P development wells is expected to start early 2019, ahead of first gas later that year
Premier said its net year-to-date averaged 78,400 barrels of oil equivalent (boe)/day, compared with 76,200 boe/d in 1H 2018. Current production is running at 85-90,000 boe/d, it added, driven by higher UK Catcher Area (oil) production, and out-performance from the Chim Sao oil and gas field offshore Vietnam, which this year has averaged 15,600 boe/d.
The company also said it completed sales of its 30% non-operated stake in the UK Esmond Transportation System, and expects to close its UK Babbage Area gas and Pakistan gas assets by end-2018.