Oil firm highlights scale of Shetland field

SHETLAND-FOCUSED Hurricane Energy has seen its shares surge after the company underlined the potential to produce massive amounts of oil from its finds in the area.

After starting production from the pioneering Lancaster find in June, Hurricane said output from the field is expected to average 20,000 barrels oil per day next year putting it on course to generate massive sums.

In an update on trading Surrey-based Hurricane said revenues from Lancaster for this year are expected to be around

$165 million (£125m).

Output from the early production system (EPS) developed for Lancaster has averaged 12,500 bopd since September.

Hurricane will use the results from the EPS to help decide whether to proceed with a bigger development at Lancaster, which is estimated to contain more than

500 million barrels.

The Aim-listed company is working on plans to bring the Lincoln find it made nearby into production by linking it to the floating facility developed for Lancaster.

Chief executive Robert Trice said 2019 had been a transformational year for Hurricane, which has helped generate huge interest in the relatively under-explored West of Shetland area.

Hurricane has focused on the fractured basement layer of granite beneath the sandstone most North Sea wells have targeted.

The company won a huge vote of confidence last year when the Spirit Energy business owned by utility giant Centrica bought into its acreage and agreed to fund an $180m drilling campaign.

This included a well to appraise the Lincoln find, which produced strong results.

The firms made a find with the Warwick West well earlier this month but initial results suggested it was smaller than investors had hoped.

Hurricane Energy shares closed up 10% at 33.2p.

Separately, Spirit said it had made two finds in the Southern North Sea, without giving an indication of their size. Centrica plans to sell its stake in Spirit, to focus on selling energy.