Business
Operational Update
Operational Update.
About this update from Enquest Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 9514X EnQuest PLC 30 November 2017 \n\n \nENQUEST PLC, 30 November 2017. \nOPERATIONAL UPDATE. \n \nKRAKEN PRODUCTON RATE ON PLAN\nHighlights\n\n§ Kraken production rate on plan\no Kraken is achieving month on month increases in production and by early November average production rates were around 23,000 Bopd gross. The second production processing train was brought onstream later in November, with rates of over 40,000 Bopd gross being achieved. \no The second and third cargo offloads were completed in October and November respectively. The quality of the crude has been well received by buyers; the latest sale of a cargo was contracted at a discount to Brent of less than $5 per barrel, this level of pricing has been achieved earlier than targeted.\no The final DC2 production well has been brought online. Excellent drilling performance has continued with the drilling of the DC3 wells nearing completion and ahead of time. The process of bringing the DC3 wells onstream has commenced early and plans to drill DC4 in 2018 are being developed.\no On the basis of this strong performance and subject to continued progress on plant uptime, EnQuest continues to expect production at Kraken to reach 50,000 Bopd gross during H1 2018.\n\n§ Group production averaged 35,410 Boepd in the ten months to end October 2017, reflecting Q3 scheduled maintenance shutdowns of around two to four weeks at most of the existing producing assets and one additional unscheduled two week shutdown at Thistle. The fields also experienced natural declines where there has been no recent drilling. EnQuest confirms 2017 full year average production guidance range remains unchanged.\n \n§ EnQuest has continued its close dialogue with its lending banks and as part of EnQuest's ongoing liquidity management strategy, it has proactively sought and has agreed relaxation of covenants and the amortisation schedule of its Term Loan and Revolving Credit Facility.\n\n§ Available bank facilities and cash amounted to $179 million as at 31 October 2017, compared to $213 million as at the end of June 2017. Net debt at 31 October 2017, was $1,991 million compared to $1,922 million as at the end of June 2017. This is p...