North Sea operator Apache yesterday reported a £150million increase in pre-tax profits for the first nine months of the year.
The firm saw profits rise to £2.16billion, compared with £2.01billion for the same period last year. Revenues stayed stable, with a £100million drop to £7.8billion for the period.
Total worldwide net daily production averaged 784,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with liquids production making up 54% of that total.
“Apache’s focused drilling programme in North America is yielding significant production growth,” said chief executive Steven Farris.
“Our Permian and Central regions are the main drivers of this higher production, adding nearly 13,000 barrels per day of oil and natural gas liquids from the second quarter.”
The two regions represent 35% of the company’s total worldwide liquids production, up from 27% previously.
But North Sea production fell 2% on the same period last year to 66,787 barrels per day, with maintenance work at the firm’s Forties field.
This was partially offset, the company said, by a successful drilling programme.
During the three-month period to September 30th a second development well started production on the Tonto field, testing at an initial 24-hour rate of 8,300 barrels of oil per day.
The company also completed the 3D seismic acquisition programme over the Forties-Bacchus area and additional seismic over recently purchased non-operated exploration acreage. 4D time lapse seismic processing is due for completion later this month.
In the fourth quarter, a mobile jack-up rig is scheduled to arrive at the Forties Alpha satellite platform. Hook up and commissioning of the platform is 60% complete, said Apache, and first oil was expected before the end of the year.
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