Premier Oil is looking to farm down some of the company’s stake in the Sea Lion field off the Falkland Islands, in order to reduce its exposure to the US$5.2 billion investment.
The company said at a capital markets day on 6 February 2014, that it wanted another company to invest in the Sea Lion project before it would move forward with the field’s development.
Premier’s Falkand Islands Director, Neil Hawkings, said that potential deals for Sea Lion were already in progress.
"We have started talking to people, but we won't go and formalize a process until we've got engineering estimates around the fourth quarter of this year," Hawkings said.
The field is expected to be developed in two phases with the tension-leg platform (TLP), and Premier estimates it will spend $3.8 billion before first oil, and $2.4 billion for the first phase to tap Sea Lion. Reserves in the discovery are estimated at 293MMbbls.
The company is now evaluating bids from rig contractors for drilling of the exploration targets, and Premier expects four wells to be drilled in 2015.
Earlier this week, Scott Lockett, Premier’s CEO, led the firm in taking over the development from Rockhopper Exploration in 2012. Lockett announced he would be stepping down from his position once the company found a successor.
Read more: http://www.oedigital.com/component/k2/item/4940-premier-ceo-lockett-to-resign
In July 2012, Premier signed a $1 billion deal to farm-in for 60% of Rockhopper Exploration's license interests in the North Falklands basin, including the Sea Lion discovery.
Subscribe
