UK-based oil and gas firm Premier Oil said yesterday it would be refocusing on the North Sea after launching two new developments in Asia.
In an interim management statement, the firm’s chief executive Simon Lockett said following two key projects coming on stream in Vietnam and Indonesia, the firm would be turning its attention to the UK.
“Having delivered successfully in Asia, the focus for investment activities now shifts back to the North Sea, where we continue to build another high quality business with significant upside potential,” he said.
Much of the focus will be on the central North Sea where six of some 25 exploration and appraisal wells planned for the remainder of 2011 and 2012 internationally will be drilled in the Eocene play.
The firm said its acquisition of EnCore, which will make it operator and 50% of the central North Sea Catcher area, was on schedule to complete in January and a drilling programme due to start in 2012.
Its acquisition of 17.715% in the Wytch Farm oil field in Dorset was due to complete in December and the firm was making good progress on its Huntington development in the central North Sea, it said.
The firm has also agreed to sell some EnCore assets, on completion, and a farm-in on central North Sea fields to Taqa Bratani. Farther afield, the firm continues exploration off Norway, Kenya, Asia and Mauritania.
Premier also said it had a target of achieving 60,000 barrels of oil per day (boepd) by the end of the year and that it wanted to raise that to 75,000 boepd by the end of 2012.
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