Enquest was today forced to make a statement denying it was in debt talks with the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
It comes after a report in the Telegraph quoted a source as saying OGA was “wringing their hands over what they can do with Enquest”. It also said the OGA was drafting contingency plans if companies were to fold.
However, Enquest took a hard stance against the report issuing a statement, which read: “EnQuest notes The Telegraph article at the weekend about the UK Oil and Gas Authority’s possible North Sea contingency plans. EnQuest routinely engages with the OGA and with the UK and Scottish Governments on industry matters, but is not involved in any company-specific discussions such as were implied by the article.”
An OGA spokeswoman added: “The OGA’s low oil price contingency team was founded at the end of 2015 specifically with the remit of understanding the issues facing companies and what the OGA and other parts of government can do to support.”
Enquest is one of the main stakeholders on the Kraken field located in he East Shetland basin.
In its most recent financial update, the firm assured investors it had enough cash to see the project through.
At the time, Neil McCulloch, president, North Sea said the £1billion in tax breaks delivered to North Sea firms added up to a “pretty positive budget”.
“They are sticking to the plan, which is good,” he said.
“We see that they have clearly identified that infrastructure is important. there are some things in there which will really help infrastructure at least survive and potentially thrive,” he added.
Mr McCulloch said the support would clear the way for EnQuest to make further acquisitions of aging assets.
The company saw its shares rise 25% immediately after its financial update. Read more here.
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