Hurricane Energy PLC (LSE:HUR) delivered what appears to be a significant upgrade to the reserves on its Lancaster Field, west of Shetland.
But while production rates were at the upper end of forecasts in the six months ended March 31, they will drop as the impact of the annual maintenance shutdown is factored in.
So, for the period just ended, output was 9,689 barrels a day – right at the very top of the 8,500-10,000 barrels range. For calendar 2022, the range is 7,500 - 8,600 barrels per day.
"The efforts of the surface and subsurface teams in beating the mid-case performance target set at the start of the forecast period have been superb,” said Antony Maris, Hurricane’s chief executive.
“Together with excellent uptime across all elements of the system has allowed the company to benefit from the higher than expected oil prices and enabled more reserves to be added in the updated CPR [competent persons report]. This supports management's production forecast for the years to come.”
A new competent persons’ report (CPR) published Thursday reveals proven (1P), proven + probable (2P) and proven + probable + possible (3P) reserves are now estimated to respectively 40mln barrels, 70.8mln barrels and 117.4mln barrels.
The 2017 CPR put those figures at 28.1mln barrels, 37.3mln barrels and 49.3mln barrels.
The shares gave a muted response, moving 1.4% lower.