According to official reports from early-January 2020, Premier Oil and partner Rockhopper Exploration have signed a set of heads of agreement with Navitas Petroleum for the latter company to farm-in for 30% interest in the concession of PL 32 as well as the blocks of PL 4b & PL 4c blocks in the adjacent concession of PL 4. Premier is the operator on both blocks with 60% stake on PL 32 and 36% on PL 4 while Rockhopper holds all the remaining equity. PL 4a block was specifically excluded from the farm-out/farm-in, although Rockhopper as the majority holder in PL 4 has granted Navitas and Premier the option to do the same alignment in the block within the next eight years at an additional cost. Completion of the agreement is expected in Q1 2020.  PL 32 and PL 4 cover offshore deepwater areas of 541 sq km and 761 sq km, respectively, in North Falkland Basin.  The aforementioned areas of PL 32, PL 4b, and PL 4c include the Sea Lion field where Premier and Rockhopper plan to begin the first phase of development with the expectation to develop 250 MMbo (up from prior reports at 220 MMbo) over a 20-year period. Peak production of the field has been predicted at 85,000 b/d with associated capex to first oil estimated at approximately USD 1.8 billion. Latest reports from Premier and Rockhopper indicated that Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase for Sea Lion field was completed in Q1 2019. The companies entered into several service agreements during 2018 in preparation for the anticipated project, although Environmental Impact Statement for the project is still awaiting approval from the Falkland Islands government as of late-2019.  In addition, PL 4b block area covers the Beverley and Zebedee oil and gas discoveries from 2011 and 2015, respectively, while PL 4a block covers the Isobel Deep oil prospect from 2015.  Background Information  According to resource estimation done in May 2016, the Sea Lion field is estimated to hold 1,667 MMb of oil in place, with discovered 2C and 3C resources standing at 517 MMbo and 900 MMbo, respectively.
Premier has signed a preliminary agreement with Navitas for acquire a 30% interest in the Sea Lion project in in PL 032.