Echo Energy (LON:ECHO), the Latin American focused energy company, has provided a production update regarding its Santa Cruz Sur assets, onshore Argentina, for Q3 2022.
CEO Martin Hull joins DirectorsTalk Interviews to discuss an agreement reached with its bond holders.
Martin explains why today’s news is so important for the company, talks us through the key points of the restructuring, provides an update on operational progress made in recent months and lets us know whats is in store for the business beyond the near term.
As previously announced, the Company has made significant progress during the quarter on the Production and Infrastructure Enhancement Plan priorities. The first operational priority under the Plan has been successfully achieved with all three power generation units fully operational. Work on the second operational milestone has commenced with maintenance and optimisation of the existing compressors. The third operational priority, upgrading the Eagle workover rig which will be used for the well opening campaign, also began during the quarter.
Q3 2022 Production Update
Production over the period from 1 January 2022 to 30 September 2022 has reached an aggregate of 392,253 boe net to Echo during the period, including 74,127 bbls of oil and condensate and 1,909 MMscf of gas.
Notwithstanding production disruption resulting from certain facilities being unavailable as upgrades to infrastructure have been made, net production in Q3 increased from Q2 levels.
Net liquids production in Q3 2022 averaged 276 bopd, (Q2 2022: 272 bopd) and represents the eighth consecutive quarter of liquid production growth.
Net gas production averaged 6.9 MMscf/d during Q3 2022, up on Q2 2022 (6.8 MMscf/d). Q3 2022 production was directly impacted as a result of the Oceano field production being brought temporarily offline due to additional infrastructure upgrades focused on increasing the amount of available sales gas, including the reconfiguration of the compressor to utilise electricity from the newly installed generator rather than gas. Additionally, production across other fields was impacted during the installation and commissioning of the new generators which as previously announced has now been successfully completed.
The ability of the various measures already undertaken to improve infrastructure is evident in increased production capacity. In the twelve-day period following completion of the works described above, net gas production averaged 7.9 MMscf/d and net liquids production averaged 320 bopd, equating to an average net 1,638 boepd over that same period. This represents a significant increase over the average production levels of 1,398 boepd for Q2 2022 immediately prior to the announcement of the Production and Infrastructure Enhancement Plan. It remains the Company’s expectation that production will increase materially as shut in wells are reopened with the workover rig now being upgraded.
The Company looks forward to continuing to update shareholders on production levels on a quarterly basis.
