Hurricane Energy agrees to terms on FPSO lease

UK based oil and gas firm Hurricane Energy said on Thursday that its Lancaster Early Production System (EPS) was on schedule for first oil during the first half of 2019 after making its final investment decision.

Hurricane announced the group had made its final investment decision for the Lancaster EPS programme and reached an agreement to lease and operate the Aoka Mizu floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel from Bluewater Energy Services.

The Aoka Mizu was on its way to Dubai for necessary upgrades.

The firm also stated it had exchanged papers on a rig contract with Transocean that would see it complete the already drilled production wells in the EPS for Hurricane.

Regulatory approval for development and production was expected to be received shortly.

Hurricane highlighted that fact that it was fully funded until the point of first oil thanks to finance agreements put in place over the summer.

Dr Robert Trice, chief executive of Hurricane said, "The Lancaster EPS is not only an essential step in planning for the full field development of the company's Rona Ridge assets, but also represents a substantial development in its own right, with planned production of 17,000 barrels of oil per day."

As of 1145 BST, shares had slipped just 0.93% to 26.75p.