Premier Oil‬‬

Premier Oil‬‬

Premier Oil plc (LSE: PMO) is an independent British UK oil company with gas and oil interests in the UK, Asia and Africa. It is devoted entirely to the 'upstream' sector of the industry - the exploitation of oil and gas - as opposed to the 'downstream' refining and retail sector. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Premier Oil making progress off Shetland 

PREMIER Oil has said it remains on track to start production from the Solan field West of Shetland before the end of the year noting that work had progressed well offshore during September and October. The start of production was originally targeted for the final quarter of 2014 but was delayed amid poor weather conditions and low productivity off Shetland over last winter.

London-based Premier said work on the Catcher field it is developing with Cairn Energy off eastern Scotland is on schedule and budget. The field is expected to come onstream in 2017. Premier, which also has operations in Asia, said it expects to cut general and administration costs by a further ten per cent, around $20m (£13m) in 2016 in response to the crude price plunge. It expects to cut such costs to $230m in the current year, from $305m last time. Spending on new projects and exploration is expected to fall to $650m next year following the completionof work on Solan, from around $1bn in the current year.  

Premier Oil sees reduced capital expenditure, cost cuts ahead

Under the agreement terms, Subsea 7 will also get access to participate in relevant premier decommissioning scopes.

Analysts have been keeping a close eye on the start-up of Premier Oil's Solan project in the North Sea which will add cash flow to the company's coffers. But it has since opted for a smaller phase 1 floating production development, with shuttle tanker, followed by a phase 2 using a tension leg platform.

A full update on the Sea Lion project is due in Q1 following results of the firm's latest four-well exploration program in the basin.

The company said it delivered cost reductions of over 25% for 2015 in operating costs and G&A spend.

Subsea 7 has signed an agreement with UK-based Premier Oil to provide concept engineering, front end engineering design (FEED), subsea umbilicals risers flowlines (SURF) project execution, as well as life of field operations.

Like its peers, Premier Oil is having to reduce spending to cope with a halving in oil prices since a peak in June past year that has eaten into revenues.

The agreement is applicable to the Centrica portfolio on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and is for a period of more than five years. Total development and exploration expenditure in 2016 (including deferrals from 2015) is expected to be c $650 million, but remains subject to ongoing budget discussions. Subsea 7 has recently participated in Premier's bidding processes in these geographies, and is supporting the execution of the Catcher development in the North Sea, which continues to progress on schedule and within budget. Subsea flowline bundles, buoy and mid water arches will be installed next summer. Despite a delays on construction of the hull, mitigating actions by FPSO contractor BW Offshore is helping "safeguard" the sail-away date, with first oil scheduled for 2017.