EnQuest has seen a 25% yearly boost to its oil and gas production thanks to strong performance from its North Sea operations.
The firm saw production jump to nearly 70,000 barrels per day between January and April, up from 56,000 in the same period last year.
Its Magnus field in the Northern North Sea was the main driver, with average production being 75% higher for the region than in the same four months in 2018.
This was slightly offset by a drop from the Heather platform while upgrades took place, and natural decline elsewhere.
EnQuest said there is still a “giant resource” in place at Magnus, with an overall estimate of 270million barrels in place when taking into account other drillable targets.
The firm said a large historical gas discovery made by BP is being evaluated.
Meanwhile, EnQuest said production has “increased materially” at its long-beleaguered Kraken field.
In March and April, production averaged 33,000 barrels per day, up from 23,000 in the first two months of the year.
More than 17million barrels of oil have been produced and offloaded from the FPSO since first production in June 2017.
Elsewhere, wax blockages in the pipeline have limited production at the Scolty Crathes development in the Central North Sea and evaluations are continuing for a subsea tie-back to the Eagle discovery.
EnQuest said it is confident of reaching its production guidance for the year of between 63,000 to 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Chief executive Amjad Bseisu said: “The group has made a good start to 2019. Production is towards the top end of our full year guidance range, our capital programme is on track and we have continued to generate strong cash flows and reduce our debt.
“FPSO performance at Kraken has improved significantly with two trains online and we continue to drive further improvements with the FPSO operator. Production from DC4 at Kraken has been better than expected and both Magnus and PM8/Seligi have performed strongly.
“Good progress is being made on our pipeline projects and preparations for drilling at Magnus and PM8/Seligi, along with our annual maintenance programmes, are underway. As such, we remain confident of achieving our Group’s 2019 production guidance of 63,000 to 70,000 Boepd.
“If the favourable oil price environment continues, we expect our net debt to EBITDA ratio to be below 2x by year end.”
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