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Barclays upgrades Premier Oil as stronger crude price eases debt concerns

Published: 10:28 17 May 2018 BST

oil and gas operations
Barclays now rates Premier Oil as 'overweight'

Premier Oil PLC (LON:PMO) shares have been upgraded by analysts at Barclays, with the bank raising its rating to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal weight’.

Barclays has a 145p price target, suggesting some 22% upside to the current price – Premier shares, meanwhile, advanced about 5% to 118p.

READ: Premier Oil’s Catcher field ramp-up continues

It comes as Barclays analyst James Howie revised a number of exploration and production companies, in the wake of the strengthening crude price.

Howie, in a note, highlighted that as better prices boost cash flow, it will be the debt-levered oil producers that should benefit most. Barclays’ new Brent base case is now fixed on US$65 per barrel, up from US$60.

Specifically, for Premier Oil, the analyst believes Brent crude prices at around US$70 through 2018-19 will remove any remaining balance sheet concerns and it will allow the management team to focus more on growth projects.

At the same time, Kosmos Energy PLC (LON:KOS) was also upgraded by Barclays to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal weight’ and set a US$9.40 target.

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