North Sea Weather Abates, Iona Increase Production
Iona Energy Inc. informs in an operational update on its Huntington Oil Field, located in the UK North Sea, that during February 2014, Iona produced on average 5,150 boepd as long periods of inclement weather previously experienced in the region subsided.
Net to Iona, February's production levels represent an increase of 54% over the 2013 fourth quarter average and 84% over January 2014 volumes.
The month saw gross Huntington production peak at 34,420 boepd (6,041 boepd net to Iona) with a monthly average of 28,000 boepd (4,914 boepd net to Iona) resulting from minor delays to offloading due to weather.
The Voyageur FPSO continues to perform well, having passed its Performance & Reliability Test on March 1st. To date, Huntington has offloaded 19 cargos and produced over 4 million barrels of oil equivalent with Iona's net share of production being above 0.7 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The Huntington partnership continues to realize Brent prices above the year to date average of USD108.42/bbl, and gas prices in the UK remain robust above USD10.50/mcf.
The working interests in the Huntington field are E.ON E&P UK Ltd (25% Operator), Premier Oil plc (40%), Noreco Oil (UK) Limited (20%), and Iona (15%). In addition to the working interest, Iona holds a gross overriding royalty of 2.55% of the total Huntington production, payable from the other Huntington joint venture partners.