Shares in Xcite (LON:XEL, CVE:XEL) lived up to the company name in early London trading after an updated reserves assessment on its Bentley field in the North Sea.
It has been over a year since the last reserves statement but the wait looks to have been worth it, with petroleum initially in place (PIIP) rising to a mean value of 909mln stock barrels from 50mln reported in February of last year.
Proven (1P) oil reserves for the Bentley field have been whacked up to 198mln stock barrels from the previous estimate of 96mln stock barrels, based on an initial 35 year production period.
Proven (1P) oil reserves for the Bentley field have been whacked up to 198mln stock barrels from the previous estimate of 96mln stock barrels, based on an initial 35 year production period.
Similarly eye-catching increases have been made for proved + probable (2P) and proved + probable + possible (3P) oil reserves.
The 2P estimate has been increased to 250 mln stock barrels from 116mln stock barrels (stb) previously, and the 3P estimate is now 312mln stock barrels, as against 140mln stock barrels in the previous assessment.
The projected peak production rate for reserves that have a 50% (P50) certainty of being produced has been set at around 45,000 stb a day (stb/d) in the first phase development, increasing to around 57,000 stb/d in the second phase development, Xcite revealed.
Having materially de-risked the field ahead of development, Xcite is now ready to evaluate suitable farm-in partners for it.
“I am very pleased to report this significant increase in both reserves and value attributable to our assets, which supports our long-held belief in the potential of the Bentley field. This 2P reserves update, at 250 million barrels, plus considerable upside potential, has exceeded our expectations,” revealed Rupert Cole, chief executive officer of Xcite Energy.
“We shall now continue to move the project forward with on-going studies into the potential for enhanced oil recovery, which has yet to be factored into the reserves assessment. There is also further scope for field optimisation in order to accelerate delivery of the Contingent Resources, as well as the potential for exploration barrels from our Prospective Resources,” Cole added.
The company said an updated field development plan will be submitted to the Department of Energy & Climate Change in the coming months.
Shares in Xcite shot up to 124.69p in the first half hour of trading, having closed at 109p on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment