London—Leading UK independent Premier Oil said Thursday its flagship Solan field west of the Shetland Islands was underperforming, with output around half the planned 20,000-25,000 b/d level, appearing to complicate the company’s development plans and debt difficulties. Premier is something of a bellwether for the UK North Sea industry, being one of the largest independents to have taken on assets sold by major companies in the past decade or so. The industry’s high debt levels are raising questions about the sustainability of the recent revival in North Sea oil production, which has been running at close to one million b/d.
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