July production
Stavanger, 10. August, 2009: Norwegian Energy Company ASA (Noreco - OSE:NOR), Noreco's production in July 2009 was 11,500 barrels oil equivalents per day.
The production rate at the end of July was approximately 13 000 barrels per day. Noreco's production will increase in the second half of the year as new wells start up on Brage and Nini and the new field Nini East start production. The development of the Nini East field is progressing according to plan, and production wells will now be drilled. Nini East will increase Noreco's production by more than 3000 barrels per day when the field starts production in Q4 2009
The production in July was impacted by reduced Nini production due to shut down of wells at the Nini-field in conjunction with well operations and shutdown of water injection during the replacement of the Siri to Nini water injection pipeline. The Nini water injection pipeline is expected to be back in operation at the end of August. The Lulita field was shut down in July at the start of a 2.5 months planned maintenance shutdown at the Harald field. At the end of July the Brage field production was back to the production levels prior to the June maintenance shutdown. The drilling of the Brage A-22A well has been succesfully completed as a ultra long reach water injection well to the Bowmore structure. The Bowmore producer is still producing at more than 16,000 bopd and will be further strengthened with water injection in well A-22A.
The achieved price for July was 63 US$ per barrel of oil equivalent. The net achieved price of reflects Noreco's oil price put options at 50 and 75 US$ per barrel as well as adjustments for inventory and NGL and gas prices.
The production volumes are preliminary and are subject to adjustments, including final allocations between fields, quality adjustments and prices.
Contacts:
Scott Kerr, CEO (+47 992 83 890)
Einar Gjelsvik, Vice President Investor Relations (+47 992 83 856)