Independent oil and gas firm EnQuest said yesterday it was on the lookout for an Aberdeen city-centre site for a new north-east headquarters.
The firm has quadrupled staffing in two years, to 1,500, and is now looking to get all its onshore workers under one roof.
Chief executive Amjad Bseisu said the growth was set to continue, following a raft of deals in the first half of this year, valued at up to £328million in cash and development costs.
These included buying into the heavy-oil Kraken field, in which it is due to have a 60% interest, and over which it is holding a competitive tender for a front-end engineering contract before submitting a development plan in the first half of next year.
Mr Bseisu also said the firm was on track to meet a production growth target of 20% a year between 2009 and 2014, with a hope to then hit 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2016 as Kraken came on stream. He added: “Everything is on target, through production to execution of projects, including the Alma/Galia development startup, and all of our assets.
“We have also been very busy in business development in the first half with six transactions including the largest field found in the last 10 years in the North Sea outside of the west of Shetlands: Kraken. Our financial strength is also intact with £59million in cash and £573million in credit.”
Mr Bseisu said EnQuest’s growth had seen it take additional office space in Centurion Court and space in the former Eni offices in Aberdeen in the past six months. It employs about 1,500 people, 400 of those directly with all but about 25 based out of the Granite City.
“We are now looking at the possibility of having a new building so we are all in one place,” he said.
The firm, which bought its first stake in Kraken in January, is gearing up to submit a field-development plan to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the first half of next year.
EnQuest said it was likely to be developed by subsea wells tied back to a floating production vessel.
The firm’s Alma/Galia project is also on track for first oil in the fourth quarter of next year, bringing an additional 20,000boepd to production.
It is also hoping to submit field-development plans for Crathes and Scolty next year and is looking at developing the Cairngorm discovery.
Announcing first-half results, EnQuest said full-year production was on target for 20,000-24,000boepd.
This was despite a 19.7% year-on-year fall in production in the six months to the end of June to 20,253boepd.
EnQuest said the fall was because of natural production declines and unscheduled closures of the Ninian and Cormorant pipelines, an issue which also affected CNR International’s first-half results last week.
As a result, EnQuest said its first-half revenue was 14% lower than a year earlier at £280million.
Pre-tax profits also dropped, to £117million compared with £131million in the same period last year. Profits after tax were up 87% at £82million, however, because of a lower income tax bill as a result of investments made during the period.
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