Hurricane Energy triples oil estimate for North Atlantic field

Oil exploration firm Hurricane Energy has tripled its estimate of recoverable oil from its Lancaster field in the North Atlantic.

The AIM-listed company said it had raised its recoverable resource estimate for the field from 200 million in a 2013 assessment to 593 million barrels.

Output from Lancaster is expected to start in the first half of 2019.

A daily production rate of 17,000 barrels is expected soon after that.

Last week Hurricane announced that it had made the "largest undeveloped discovery" of oil in UK waters.

The company said one billion barrels of recoverable oil could be contained within the Greater Lancaster Area, 60 miles (97km) west of Shetland.