A tale of two trading updates

UK independent Enquest’s revised forecast for 2020 may be just six weeks removed from its previous guidance. But it is also a world away

North Sea and Malaysia-focused producer Enquest issued new advice on its 2020 operations on Thursday, a mere 44 days after it last did so and just a week before it announces annual results. It offers a sobering snapshot of the seismic shift in the energy market in recent weeks.  Revised production, if one takes a midpoint of Enquest’s two ranges, is not so stark, down by a relatively modest 7pc. But two of the firm’s North Sea assets, the Heather and Thistle/Deveron fields—which were characterised as ongoing shutdowns—will now not restart in Enquest’s current working assumption.  35pc – drop in Enquest capex Combined production from these fields in 2019 was only c.6,000bl/d oe, admit