Hurricane completes Lincoln plug and abandonment work

Oil and gas company Hurricane Energy has completed the plugging and abandonment of the Lincoln-14 well in the Greater Warwick Area (GWA) off the UK.

Hurricane said on Wednesday that the operation on the Lincoln-14 well, located on the P1368 (South) license of the Greater Warwick Area, was completed within both schedule and budget.

The company added that the Stena Don semi-submersible rig contracted to undertake the work had been released.

The company previously announced, including in the Proposed Financial Restructuring announcement published on 30 April 2021, that the GWA joint venture has a regulatory obligation to plug and abandon the Lincoln-14 well by 31 October 2021, and that a rig had been contracted by Hurricane, as licence operator, for this purpose.

The company hired the Stena Don semi-submersible rig in mid-June. At the time, the company claimed that the Lincoln-14 plug and abandonment would take around 20-25 days to complete with a gross budgeted campaign cost of around $13 million (net $6.5 million to Hurricane).

As for the company, Hurricane is currently in a lot of trouble as the High Court of Justice of England and Wales has decided not to sanction its financial restructuring plan that would have handed control of the company to its bondholders.

The plan would have handed control to Hurricane’s bondholders in exchange for forgiving $50 million of debt and extending the maturity date on a further $180 million of bonds due to be repaid in July next year.

The plan was unpopular with shareholders, including activist fund Crystal Amber which is Hurricane’s second-largest investor with a stake of more than 11 per cent. The vote by the shareholders was overwhelmingly against the plan with only 7.66 per cent of votes for and 92.34 per cent against. Bondholders were the complete opposite with a 100 per cent vote in favour of the restructuring plan.

Only days after the plan was refused by the courts, the company’s chairman, as well as all other non-executive directors, resigned from the company’s board effective immediately.