Ithaca Energy (IAE) reported another delay towards first oil from the Greater Stella field in the UK's North Sea. The launch of the FPF-1 floating production unit from Poland is expected to be delayed by six to 12 weeks, which means that initial production will be pushed back to the third quarter, although given the likely trajectory of crude prices between now and then, the opportunity cost of the delay isn't quite such an issue.
Ithaca did confirm, however, that it still expects to more than double daily production in 2016 to around 25,000 barrels and cut capital expenditure by 40 per cent. The driller also revealed that output in 2015 totalled around 12,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), which exceeded guidance of 12,000 boepd.
