The firm behind one of the North Sea’s most promising new fields today said early production has been ahead of expectations. Since first oil from the Lancaster field in the West of Shetlands area was achieved in June, Hurricane Energy said production has averaged 14,400 barrels of oil per day with 1.2 million barrels of crude oil sold to date.

The output was achieved despite flows being held back by Hurricane only being able to use one of two subsea flowlines for much of the period due to operational reasons. Although it is now operating with both flowlines, Hurricane said production and availability in the months ahead are likely to be constrained due to planned works and data gathering activities.

Hurricane sold its first oil from the field in mid June, having been delayed twice by hitches while hooking up a buoy. It has maintained its production guidance for the second half of 2019 at around 11,000 barrels a day.

Dr Robert Trice, chief executive of Hurricane, said he was delighted production levels have been above expectations for the early phase of operations.

“However, despite these promising results, we remain cognisant that it will take up to a year to acquire and interpret sufficient performance information to test our reservoir model of the field,” he said.

“Now that we are back to flowing the Lancaster wells through separate flowlines, we look forward to gathering data on individual well performance to help optimise well delivery as well as improve the company’s understanding of the reservoir’s performance.

It is thought the Lancaster field could hold more than 500 million barrels of oil.

Last July the firm raised $520 million to fund development of an early production system to test the Lancaster field ahead of full production.