Ithaca Energy forecasts H2 production in line with guidance

27th Jun 2013 10:45

AIM-listed oil and gas operator Ithaca Energy has predicted that total forecast production for the second half of 2013 will be within the company's guidance range of 14,000 and 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in an operations update issued on Thursday.The company said that this production outlook would be supported by production enhancement activities, notably on the Don Southwest field. Production in the second half would be impacted by the second phase of planned maintenance shutdown activity on the host facilities serving the company's fields, the company said. Most significantly, it said that there would be an approximately six week shutdown of the Causeway Area fields as a result of maintenance activities on the Taqa-operated Cormorant infrastructure that serves the fields.Net average export production in the second quarter of 2013 for the combined pro-forma Ithaca and Valiant Petroleum entities was anticipated to be approximately 14,000 boepd. The company said that fields produced strongly during the quarter, although, as anticipated, production had been impacted by planned maintenance shutdowns on a number of assets, including the company's operated Beatrice Area infrastructure and Anglia, together with the non-operated Topaz field. It said that scheduled shutdowns were also incurred on the Shell-operated Anasuria floating production, storage and offloading vessel that serves as the host facility for the Cook field to enable the re-start of production from another field that uses the vessel. Ithaca Energy's share price was down 0.46% to 109p at 10:43 on Thursday.MF