Shares in Independent Oil & Gas PLC (LON:IOG) advanced around 15% in Wednesday’s early deals as its North Sea projects reached a long awaited milestone.
IOG in a statement revealed that it had submitted a field development plan (FDP) to the UK Oil and Gas Authority for the Blythe and Elgood fields, part of the company’s production hub strategy. Both wholly-owned fields are located in the vicinity of existing oil and gas infrastructure as well as other IOG held assets.
Previously, IOG submitted a FDP for Blythe only.
“This is a major step forward from the single-field draft submission in December 2016,” said Mark Routh, IOG chief executive.
“The Blythe Hub is of great strategic value to IOG alongside the larger Vulcan Satellites Hub.
“Commercial negotiations continue to be progressed upon the basis of deferrals of a substantial proportion of contractor costs as well as prepayments from potential gas offtakers to help meet the funding requirements.”
The company intends to bring Blythe online first, hooking the field up to the recommissioned Thames pipeline, which it is presently working to acquire.
Blythe has previously been estimated to host some 34bn cubic feet of gas, which amounts to 6.1mln barrels oil equivalent, and Elgood is seen to have 22bn cubic feet / 4.3mln barrels boe.
IOG noted, however, that a new assessment of the field’s reserves and resources.