Production start-up from Premier Oil’s Catcher FPSO helped widen pre-tax profits for BW Offshore.
The Oslo-listed vessel owner reported pre-tax profits of £21.2m in the first half of the year, from £6.7m in the same period in 2017.
BW said operating profits were up as a result of start-up from Catcher.
Premier Oil said last week Catcher had “exceeded expectations” since achieving first oil in December, achieving plateau production of 60,000 barrels per day in May.
Premier and BW are now in preliminary discussions to boost Catcher’s production above 60,000 bpd.
BW also confirmed it has been awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for an FPSO for phase 1 of Premier’s Sea Lion development in the Falklands.
The firm said it would use the lessons from collaborating with Premier on the Catcher vessel.
The deal is subject to final approval in 2019.