Not so Stella

Following Ithaca’s recent update on Stella, it has now announced that there will be a short delay to first production with the operation coming on stream in January.

The offshore commissioning of the FPF-1 platform is well advanced and continues. However during routine inspections, faults were found on a number of electrical junction boxes on the vessels processing facilities. Repairs are now underway but this will delay field start up. The repair costs are expected to be immaterial.

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Stella progress

‎Ithaca has reported that the Stella field is expected to come onstream at the end of November. Production will commence initially from one well, before bringing the remaining four wells online soon after which will ramp up production to plateau by year end.

The vessel hook-up is well advanced and tanker trials have now been completed.‎ The 44km spurline connecting the field to the Norpipe system was also successfully installed with switching from tanker to pipeline export to occur during 2017.

Ithaca expects to add a tie-back to the FPF-1 platform every two years to maintain production efficiency. As a result, it is expected that the Harrier development will soon commence with contracting in the near future to make the most of current low rates; separately Vorlich will be progressed towards FDP approval.

The commissioning of Stella will more than double Ithaca's existing production and reduces group opex towards USD17/bbl and cash break-even to USD22/bbl. Ithaca's balance sheet will begin to materially de-lever from the beginning of next year, putting the company in a good position ahead of its upcoming debt refinancing.

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