Premier Oil exports first cargo of Catcher oil

LONDON -- Premier is pleased to provide the following update on its operated Catcher Area development, which was successfully brought on-stream on Dec. 23, 2017.

The first export cargo of Catcher oil of approximately 500,000 bbl was lifted yesterday, earlier than anticipated, and has been sold at a premium to Brent. The second cargo, which is scheduled for the third week of February, has also been sold at a similar premium to Brent.

To date, four production wells - two from the Catcher field and two from Varadero field - have been brought online.  Initial rates from these four producers totaled in excess of 60,000 bopd and, as planned, these wells are being deliberately constrained at an average of 20,000 bopd whilst final commissioning of the gas processing modules on the FPSO is completed.

Performance of the BW Catcher FPSO has been excellent with high operational uptime. Commissioning of the water injection system has been completed.  Gas commissioning is progressing well with the gas import/export pipeline now fully open to the SEGAL pipeline and booster compression test runs successfully concluded. The next stages of gas treatment and export compression commissioning will now follow with the switch to fuel gas for the main power generation and ancillary boilers set to commence this week. Once the gas systems, including gas export, are fully available, production will be brought on-stream from Burgman field and full production from the Catcher Area is planned to increase to 60,000 bopd. This remains on schedule for second-quarter 2018.