Premier Oil exports first cargo from Catcher development

Independent exploration and production company Premier Oil exported its first cargo from its Catcher Area development in the North Sea on Tuesday, with a second scheduled for mid-February.

The first export of approximately 500,000 barrels of oil was lifted earlier than expected and was sold at a premium to the spot Brent crude price, with the second set to be sold at a similar premium to the benchmark.

Premier has four production wells online, two at the Catcher field and another two over at the Varadero field, with initial rates from all four producers totalling more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day but was throttled at 20,000 boepd whilst final gas commissioning on the floating production, storage and offloading vessel was being completed.

The London-based firm said production of the BW Catcher FPSO had been excellent, with commissioning of the water injection system complete and the gas commissioning system progressing well with the gas import/export pipeline now fully open.

Premier expected full production from Catcher during the second quarter of 2018.

As of 0920 GMT, shares had inched up 2.79% to 95.90p.