Hurricane Energy reports strong production and reserves

Production in the six months to the end of March was 9,689 barrels of oil per day (bopd) compared with guidance for 8,500-10,00 bopd issued in September.

Management expects production in the year to the end of December to be 7,500 - 8,600 bopd including the effect of an annual maintenance shutdown expected in the third quarter.

The North Sea operator said its Lancaster field, west of the Shetland islands, had higher reserves than previously estimated. An independent assessment upgraded the estimate by 2.4m barrels of oil based on improved future production and a longer economic life aided by higher oil prices.

Lancaster's estimated reserves were 5.8m barrels at the end of December, down from 7.1m barrels a year earlier after production of 3.7m barrels during 2021.

Antony Maris, Hurricane's chief executive, said: "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.

"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 competent person's report. This supports management's production forecast for the years to come."

Hurricane shares fell 1.6% to 11.16p at 10:06 BST. The shares have almost tripled in value so far in 2022.