Work started yesterday on Premier Oil’s new UK North Sea base at the £125million Prime Four business park at Kingswells, Aberdeen.
Mike Skitmore, Premier’s UK business unit manager, said the project was a sign of the energy firm’s long-term commitment to the North Sea.
Premier has signed a 15-year lease for its new premises, which will be the first building in a second phase of the Prime Four development.
Mr Skitmore said the lease alone represented a £22.5million investment by Premier, while the company was to spend a further £3-£5million on fitting-out work.
“This is a quality development,” he said, adding that Premier was impressed by what was happening at Prime Four.
Premier’s UK North Sea business is run from four separate locations in the west end of Aberdeen.
These will be consolidated under one roof at the new site, which is expected to be ready for occupation by September 2014.
Premier will have about 250 people across its Aberdeen offices by the end of this year.
This is expected to increase to 290-300 by the end of 2014 and Mr Skitmore said the new site would comfortably accommodate 350.
London-based Premier will have UK North Sea net production of about 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) after output from the Huntington field, where it has a 40% stake, ramps up.
Mr Skitmore said the firm’s net output was expected to grow to around 50,000boepd by 2017, boosted by the west-of-Shetland Solan field coming on stream in the final quarter of next year and Catcher during 2016.
Premier plans to submit its field-development plan for Catcher, which at an estimated 300million barrels of oil is one of the most significant prospects in the basin in recent years, before the end of 2013.
The firm’s neighbours at the business park will include De Vere Hotels, whose new £25million urban village resort will also start taking shape soon.
Prime Four developer Drum Property Group (DPG) is in advanced talks with other potential tenants. Stuart Oag, a director of the firm said: “We expect these to be successfully concluded in the near future.”
The second phase of the business park, where tenants for a first phase nearing completion include Apache, Nexen and Transocean, has taken DPG’s investment in the site so far to more than £125million.
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