Oil and gas company Energean (ENOG) fell 3.2% to 767p on a delay to expectations of first gas from its flagship Karish project following fresh Covid-19 restrictions in Singapore.
These restrictions will impact preparation of the floating production vessel which will be used on the field. In January Covid measures were blamed for first gas potentially shifting from the end of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 and the latest signal is that Karish will be up and running by the middle of next year
More positively, full year production guidance for 2021 was increased to between 38,000 and 42,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from 36,000 to 41,000.
‘CHALLENGING BUT SUCCESSFUL 2020’
Production in the four-months to 30 April 2021 was 44,200 boepd, about 15% ahead of the midpoint of full-year guidance.
Specialist broker SP Angel commented: ‘2020 was clearly a challenging year but nevertheless a successful one for Energean, as the company completed the first phase to become the leading independent gas-producer in the Mediterranean with the completion of the acquisition of Edison E&P.
‘The second phase of that transformation will be completed once Karish, a multi-tcf flagship gas project offshore Israel, commences production enabling the company to deliver material free cash flows.
‘Energean’s revenue streams in Israel are now secured, predictable and largely insulated from global commodity price fluctuations, supporting Energean’s target to begin paying a dividend following first gas.’
