Hurricane Energy has narrowed its loses amid hopes to get first oil from its potentially game changing new North Sea field in the first half of 2019.
The UK based oil and gas firm announced earlier this year that the Lancaster field and Halifax well prospect in the West of Shetland were believed to be one single large hydrocarbon accumulation.
If proved right, it would make the area a possible contender for Britain’s largest undeveloped oil find in more than a decade.
It was speculated that up to one billion barrels of oil could lie in the untapped Greater Lancaster area.
However the logistics of such a recovery level from the unusual play – a ‘fractured basement’ reservoir – has thrown some doubts on these figures.
Nonetheless, an updated competent person’s report (CPR) from RPS Energy Consultants estimated that the field held best estimate recoverable volumes of 523 million barrels of oil.
It is hoped that approximately 17,000 barrels of oil per day can be achieved on start up at the Lancaster field.
The figure represents a 162% increase compared to an earlier report in 2013.
Hurricane narrowed its pre-tax losses to £4.7 million last year compared to £5.5 million in 2015 during what was described as a “transformational year”.
Proved and probable reserves (2P) amounted to 37.3 million barrels of oil. This was put down to the six year early production system (“EPS”) at the Lancaster field.
A best estimate of resources was out at 691 million barrels from the Lancaster and Whirlwind developments.
Hurricane said it raised £126.2 million in 2016 to fund the drilling programme, ending the year with £82.2 million in cash.
This is a significant increase from 2015’s £9.9 million.
Dr Robert Trice, chief executive of Hurricane, said: “2016 was a transformational year during which we were able to raise the funds necessary to take advantage of low oil field services rates and the availability of the Transocean Spitsbergen rig to start a drilling campaign that would last 265 days.
“The continuous drilling operations were highly successful and resulted in two further basement discoveries, a very substantial uplift in resources, the complete production well stock required for the EPS and a wealth of reservoir information to allow us to progress with the first phase of development for Lancaster on schedule for first oil in H1 2019.”
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