Chief financial officer Alistair Stobie told an industry audience in late November that Hurricane intended to hand in the field development plan for the Lancaster field early production system to the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) in December.

Speaking to Upstream this week, Stobie acknowledged that the final development plan has not been submitted but emphasised that work was ongoing and he still expected it to take place in sufficient time for Hurricane to meet its previous targets of taking a final investment decision in mid-2017 in readiness for first oil in 2019.

Late