Premier Oil : Catcher operational update

PREMIER OIL PLC

('Premier')

Catcher operational update

24 January 2018

Premier is pleased to provide the following update on its operated Catcher Area development, which was successfully brought on-stream on 23 December 2017.

The first export cargo of Catcher oil of approximately 500,000 barrels was lifted yesterday, earlier than anticipated, and has been sold at a premium to Brent. The second cargo, which is scheduled for the third week of February, has also been sold at a similar premium to Brent.

To date, four production wells - two from the Catcher field and two from the Varadero field - have been brought online. Initial rates from these four producers totalled in excess of 60 kbopd and, as planned, these wells are being deliberately constrained at an average of 20 kbopd whilst final commissioning of the gas processing modules on the FPSO is completed.

Performance of the BW Catcher FPSO has been excellent with high operational uptime. Commissioning of the water injection system has been completed. Gas commissioning is progressing well with the gas import/export pipeline now fully open to the SEGAL pipeline and booster compression test runs successfully concluded. The next stages of gas treatment and export compression commissioning will now follow with the switch to fuel gas for the main power generation and ancillary boilers set to commence this week. Once the gas systems, including gas export, are fully available, production will be brought on-stream from the Burgman field and full production from the Catcher Area is planned to increase to 60 kbopd. This remains on schedule for Q2 2018.

Enquiries:
Premier Oil plc	Tel: [phone]
Tony Durrant, Chief Executive
Richard Rose, Finance Director
Camarco	Tel: [phone]
Billy Clegg Georgia Edmonds