As one analyst put it, it would have been interesting to have been in the Pimlico offices of Premier Oil this week when news of the huge discovery at the Zama field off Mexico came in. This is a genuine game-changer, with 500 million barrels of oil recoverable in waters relatively easy to operate in and close to the necessary terminals and other infrastructure.
This makes scrabbling around in the North Sea for small discoveries seem less compelling, even if Premier is still drilling there. The company chose to put the news from Zama out a day before yesterday’s expected trading update and the shares rose 36 per cent — it has 25 per cent of the field and its Houston-based partner, Talos Energy, put