Premier Oil said yesterday it had signed a deal with new company EnCounter Oil to seek fresh exploration opportunities in the UK North Sea.
EnCounter – which has its registered office in Hertfordshire – was set up just recently by the former senior exploration team at EnCore, which Premier acquired in a £221million deal completed earlier this year. The new firm’s bosses include Graham Dore, one of EnCore’s founding directors. The business was incorporated on March 12.
In an interim management statement on the eve of its annual meeting today, Premier said its exclusive agreement with EnCounter would focus on opportunities in the central and northern North Sea.
Premier also reiterated its average production target of 60,000-65,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day for 2012, 50% higher than in 2011 as new North Sea projects came on stream.
It said a medium-term target of 100,000boe per day remained unchanged and on track.
Premier said average daily production during the first four months of 2012 was 56,100boe, adding that this had improved to 62,700boe recently.
It said plans for the remainder of 2012 included about 12 exploration and appraisal wells, targeting “unrisked potential” of around 160million boe net to Premier.
This includes the Carnaby well on the Catcher acreage in the UK North Sea – spudded last Friday – and the Benteng well in Indonesia, on which drilling is under way.
London-based Premier said it was also in the process of submitting a number of licence applications in both existing and new locations, including the UK and Cyprus.
The firm highlighted available cash and undrawn finance worth nearly £150million, with chief executive Simon Lockett adding: “We are pleased with the field production performance in the early months of 2012 and with the tangible progress that has been made on our next generation of development projects.”
FTSE 250 index-listed Premier employs around 625 people, including about 240 in the UK, across oil and gas interests in eight countries.
It was given the go-ahead recently for its £538million development of the 40million-barrel Solan oil field west of Shetland.