Apache Cuts Output Outlook
Houston-based Apache Corporation said it has revised its international production outlook downward to take account of the North Sea Forties pipeline system outage and lower Egypt volumes.
"Internationally, the company revised its production outlook to reflect the impact of unscheduled downtime at the third-party operated Forties Pipeline System and the under-performance of recent wells in the Beryl area of the North Sea," it said January 9: "Adjusted sales volumes were also lower in Egypt, primarily due to the impact of improving Brent oil prices on the cost recovery mechanisms in Apache's production sharing contracts. As a result of these factors, the company expects fourth-quarter adjusted international production in the range of 138,000-140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and base-level production volumes to be lower than planned going into 2018." That contrasts with the 4Q2017 guidance of 150,000-156,000 boe/d outside the US, given in its 3Q results November 2.
In contrast, it expects 4Q US production to be at the high end of the company's guidance range of 218,000 to 224,000 boe/d, driven primarily by strong quarter-over-quarter growth in the Permian shale basin.
In 3Q2017, Apache equity production in the UK North Sea was 59,507 boe/d, of which liquids 51,164 b/d with the remainder (50.05mn ft3/d) associated gas, largely from its interests in the Beryl area fields. Both oil and associated gas upstream of the Ineos-operated Forties Pipeline System was shut in for over three weeks last month, because of a hairline fracture on an onshore section of its oil pipe.
Apache reports its 4Q and full year 2017 results February 22.