Page 14 - EurOil Week 22 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Hibiscus, Ithaca team up for North

Sea discoveries

UK MALAYSIA’S Hibiscus Petroleum is teaming up Marigold jointly with Ithaca’s Yeoman discovery
with Israeli-owned Ithaca Energy develop a pair instead.
The OGA requested of discoveries in the UK North Sea. The pair are currently negotiating a joint
that Hibiscus conisder In its latest quarterly report, Hibiscus said the development agreement (JDA), Hibiscus
developing Marigold two partners expected to select an infrastructure said.
jointly with Ithaca’s option for the Marigold and Yeoman finds by the Hibiscus acquired 50% interests in Marigold
Yeoman discovery. end of August. They are “revisiting” whether to and Sunflower in 2018 for around $40.5mn from
use Teekay’s Voyageur Spirit vessel, which was Caldera Petroleum, a London-registered unit of
previously used at Premier Oil’s Huntington field India’s Aban Offshore. It recently bought a fur-
and is now idle at the Scottish part of Kishorn. ther 37.5% of the two fields from Caldera, raising
The two companies may also decide to tie the its ownership to 87.5%. Both deposits are within
discoveries back to Repsol Sinopec’s Piper B licence P198 and contain an estimated 60mn
platform. barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Hibiscus filed a development plan with regu- Ithaca, which is under the majority control of
lators for the first phase of the Marigold project Israel’s Delek Group, obtained the licence con-
in December 2020. The plan involves three sub- taining Yeoman and a second discovery, boast-
sea production wells tied back to a floating pro- ing a combined size of 15mn boe, from France’s
duction, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. TotalEnergies in February 2020.
The company later decided to move ahead with Hibiscus posted GBP36.8mn ($52.4mn)
a second phase, involving either more wells at in revenues for the first quarter, up from
Marigold or the development of Sunflower, Yeo- GBP30mn ($42.6mn) in the same period last
man, Crown and Kildrummy as well. However, year. Its EBITDA strengthened to GBP20.8mn
the UK’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) in Janu- ($29.6mn) from GBP16.1mn ($22.9mn) a year
ary requested that Hibiscus consider developing earlier, thanks to higher oil prices. ™

NEWS IN BRIEF
Bulgaria probes Russian oil North Macedonia’s Okta to share in Kosovo, where it also operates, to
26% from 23% at the end of 2019.
giant Lukoil’s local port pay 50% lower dividend for global oil market, Okta transformed itself
In 2013, in response to the changes in the
Bulgarian tax inspectors and customs 2020 from an oil refinery into a logistics and fuel
officials will probe Russian oil giant Lukoil’s trading company.
port near the Black Sea city of Burgas, aiming North Macedonia’s leading fuel supplier Okta is part of Greece’s Hellenic
to gather complete information about the oil Okta will distribute a gross dividend of Petroleum Group.
terminal’s operations, caretaker Economy MKD73 (€1.19) per share for 2020, which
Minister Assen Vassilev said in an interview is by 50% lower amount from a year earlier,
with Radio Free Europe. the shareholders of the company decided last Serbian government takes
Lukoil has had a 35-year concession since week.
2011, granted by former prime minister The company will pay lower dividend as it over gas transport company
Boyko Borissov’s first government. Borissov swung to loss in 2020 due to the COVID-19
is suspected of having close ties with Lukoil’s crisis that affected the oil industry. Ownership of the Transportgas company
former CEO Valentin Zlatev. In 2020, Okta turned to a net loss of was transferred on May 28 from the state-
According to Vassilev, inspectors are MKD520.6mn, compared to a net profit of owed company Srbijagas to the Serbian
gathering information to verify whether MKD293.8mn a year earlier. Sales plunged government, TV N1 reported.
Lukoil has been declaring its corporate 44.4% year on year to MKD15.4mn in 2020. The transfer documents were signed by
tax correctly, and particularly whether The accumulated earnings of Okta totaled Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic and Minister
the Russian oil is first being transferred to MKD1.2bn, but slashed to MKDD655.2mn of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihailovic.
another country and then to Bulgaria at after the shareholders decided to cover the
higher prices. 2020 loss. Mihailovic said that this was the first
Lukoil, which owns the largest oil refinery Okta will use MKD61.8mn from the step in reforming Srbijagas and the entire
on the Balkans, also located near Burgas, has accumulated earnings from the previous gas industry, adding that Serbia now
paid almost no corporate tax to the state in years to pay out dividends for last year. has an independent gas operator, while
the last ten years. The dividend will be paid out starting Bajatovic said that Srbijagas would work
Vassilev said that results from the from July 26, but no later than September 30. with the government and energy ministry to
investigation are expected within one or two Despite the challenges, Okta said it kept implement a restructuring plan.
weeks. the leading position on the market in North
Macedonia at 62% and increased the market

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 22 03•June•2021