Premier Ready for Big Push at Tolmount
Thursday 2 March 2017
Premier Oil is set to announce within weeks fresh progress on the £435 million ($535 million) first phase of its promising Tolmount gas development in the UK southern North Sea, a senior executive has confirmed.
Stuart Wheaton, Premier’s UK director, on Wednesday called Tolmount a “very exciting new project … which is frankly quite imminent”.
“We really are at the point as I stand here today of starting the front-end engineering and design work,” Wheaton said during a presentation at the East of England Energy Group’s SNS 2017 conference. “This will take approximately nine to 12 months.
“So, it’s happening. I think in one or two weeks’ time you will see some more public-domain press announcements as a few agreements are put into place which are very close now that will confirm that we are really going to start. It is very close.”
If all goes to plan, a final investment decision could happen “approximately this time next year” with first gas targeted “towards the end of 2020”, he said.