Ithaca Confirms 12,000-Barrel per Day Target for 2015

North Sea-focused independent producer Ithaca Energy has reiterated its target of 12,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for 2015 after producing 12,667 boepd during the second quarter. The firm said that the target figure takes into account planned maintenance shutdown activities during the second half of the year. 

In an operations update published Thursday, Ithaca said that its producing assets continued to perform well over the course of 2Q 2015, with "solid operational uptime achieved across the main fields". The firm noted that the tie-in of the Ythan field development was completed and brought into production at the end of May and that the initial performance of the Ythan well has been encouraging.

Among planned maintenance shutdown activities on the host facilities serving several of the company's fields, there will be an approximate two-month planned shutdown of the Cook field during the third quarter of 2015 for life-extension works on the Anasuria floating production and offloading facility that serves the field.

Ithaca also said that it has continued to make progress with the development program for its Greater Stella Area asset. A development drilling campaign was completed in April 2015, and the majority of subsea infrastructure installation activities planned for 2015 were also completed during the second quarter. The main remaining subsea activity to be closed out in 3Q 2015 will be the installation and tie-in of the two-mile oil export pipeline from the FPF-1 riser base to the Single Anchor Loading structures, the firm added.

Ithaca also said that progress continues on execution of the "FPF-1" floating production facility modifications programme and sail-away of the vessel to the field remains scheduled for late in the first quarter of 2016, resulting in first hydrocarbons in the second quarter of that year.

Meanwhile, Ithaca reported that its net drawn debt at the end of June was $788 million out of total debt facilities of $950 million.

Analysts at Anglo-Canadian investment bank First Energy commented that the update "shows that Ithaca is executing on its targets".

"Most importantly, the start-up of Stella is on track for 2Q 2016," FirstEnergy wrote in a brief research note.