Nostrum Oil and Gas has reported increased revenues for the third quarter of 2017 but state the loss of two wells means overall production is behind schedule.
The company incurred the loss of the wells after a shutdown at the end of last year leaving it unable to meet targets or reopen production.
Kai-Uwe Kessel, chief executive officer of Nostrum Oil & Gas, said: “Financially it was a strong quarter with the successful bond refinancing completed, higher oil prices and continued implementation of our cost saving programme. However, from an operational perspective it was disappointing to announce earlier this month the delay to the GTU3 tie-in due to the inability to be able to complete hydro-testing prior to the winter period as a result of the non-delivery of critical equipment.
“In addition the loss of two production wells after the Q4 shut down last year and the delay from Q1 in the drilling schedule has meant production is behind our 2017 targets as we haven’t yet been able to bring on the new production wells. On the upside we have had some positive appraisal results which mean our overall strategy looks like it will be well supported by more reserves in the future to prolong the production peak. I look forward to providing more details in the coming months on the appraisal programme and our reserve growth plans for 2018.”
The company recorded revenues for the first nine months of the year of $303million – this is up on the previous period’s $241.5million. Its net debt totals $1billion.
For the first nine months of the year, Nostrum recorded an average daily production of 44,879boepd. This figure slipped slightly in the third quarter, which produced an average daily production of 41,265 boepd.
A spokesperson for Nostrum said: “2017 and 2018 production is being recalculated due to the delay of GTU3 and the drilling programme being behind schedule. For 2017, it is unlikely sales volumes will exceed 40,000 boepd given the delay in completion of production wells. For 2018, we do not foresee any increase in production for the first half of the year until GTU3 is tied-in over three weeks in April. For H2 2018 we see the potential to gradually ramp up production but will only be able to guide on the scale of this once the drilling programme for 2018 has been finalised and the results from the existing wells have been obtained.”
Nostrum is focused on the development and exploration of oil and gas in the pre-Caspian Basin.
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