By Ankita Bora
(Reuters) -North Sea-focused Harbour Energy raised its annual free cash flow and production forecast on Thursday, bolstered by robust production as it integrates Wintershall Dea assets, sending its shares sharply higher.
Harbour Energy, the largest British North Sea oil and gas producer, completed its acquisition of the Wintershall Dea assets last year and said on Thursday the deal had driven a “step change in the scale, resilience, and longevity” of its portfolio.
The company, which was created in 2021 through the merger of Chrysaor and Premier Oil, now expects to record $1 billion in free cash flow in 2025, up from a previous forecast of $900 million.
It has been shifting capital away from the UK and focusing on international assets for future investments, after Britain’s tax changes in late 2024 removed incentives for reinvestment.
“(The UK) remains a challenging environment for us … so long as the fiscal regime is as it is in the country, investment here just finds itself hard to compete with the opportunities we have in other countries,” said CEO Linda Z. Cook.
Harbour announced plans in May to cut 250 jobs, around a quarter of the workforce, at its Aberdeen-based UK unit.
It launched a $100 million share buyback on Thursday, taking total shareholder distributions for the year to $555 million.
Shares in the London-listed firm were up 12.7% at 230.3 pence by 0938 GMT.
Harbour also lifted the lower end of its full-year production outlook to a range of 460,000 to 475,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), from 455,000 to 475,000 boepd earlier.
Production in the first half of 2025 tripled year on year to 488,000 boepd, supported by new wells in the UK, Norway and Argentina.
(Reporting by Ankita Bora and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Joe Bavier)
