Page 13 - EurOil Week 20 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Angus secures loan for

Saltfleetby gas project

UK LONDON-LISTED Angus Energy has struck took a 51% share in the project in Lincolnshire
a loan deal with Mercuria Energy Trading and last year, while its partner Saltfleetby Energy
First gas from Aleph to fund its onshore Saltfleetby gas field, controls the remaining 49% interest.
Saltfleetby is expected the operator reported on May 13. The four-year loan from Aleph and Mercu-
in the first quarter. Angus signed a memorandum of under- ria has a 12% margin over Libor and includes a
standing (MoU) with Aleph Energy and Aleph 3% commitment fee to be paid out of the facility.
Commodities on obtaining the GBP12mn The financiers will also be granted 30mn shares
($16mn) loan in November last year. That pre- in Angus and a cut of future revenues from
liminary deal did not include Mercuria. Saltfleetby.
Angus CEO George Lucan said the support First gas from Saltfleetby is expected in the
from Aleph and Mercuria would “unlock the fourth quarter, with its initial sales priced at rel-
substantial shareholder value of the Saltfleetby atively high winter gas prices. The company will
gas field as well as provide financial, commercial drill a third production well at Saltfleetby and
and technical support for Angus’ energy transi- then reconnect two existing wells.
tion plans.” “This will allow us to begin with the daily
“Attaching this calibre of funders demon- plateau production of 10mn cubic feet [283,000
strates the quality of the Saltfleetby asset and cubic metres] once the processing facilities have
further validates the strategic direction of the been commissioned,” Angus said.
board,” it said. The company is also looking at geothermal
Saltfleetby was formerly the UK’s largest projects in the UK and is “evaluating other acqui-
onshore gas field but was shut down in 2018 after sitions and renewable opportunities with our
most of its resources had been extracted. Angus new funding partners and investors.” ™

Equinor gets nod for Linge launch

NORWAY NORWAY’S Equinor has been granted approval NOK47.1bn previously and an original estimate
from Norwegian authorities to launch produc- of NOK29.6bn. The company then revealed in
The delayed project tion at the delayed Martin Linge project in the September last year that it would have to drill
was originally due to North Sea. several more wells at the field to replace some
produce its first gas in Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) unsafe ones completed by Total. It said the work
2016. announced the approval of Linge’s jacket-based would add a further NOK2bn ($220mn) to Lin-
platform, associated offshore pipelines and ge’s budget.
onshore control room. The field will flow gas The PSA has also authorised Equinor to use
via pipeline to St Fergus in Scotland, while its oil the Maersk Intrepid jackup rig to drill the 30/4-
will be processed on the storage vessel and trans- A-11 and 30/4-A-16 production wells at Linge.
ported from the field in shuttle tankers. The rig has been at the field since autumn 2018
Equinor has a 70% interest in Linge, while but has been serving as a floatel. ™
Norway’s Petoro has 30%. The project, first
cleared for development in 2012, has had a diffi-
cult history and is significantly over its original
budget and behind schedule.
First gas from Linge was originally scheduled
for 2016, and its former operator Total attributed
the early delays to a fatal accident at the South
Korean shipyard that was building its platform.
Equinor acquired Total’s ownership in 2017 and
rescheduled the field’s launch to 2019, but that
was then delayed to 2020 and again to 2021.
In October 2019, the Norwegian government
revealed in its 2020 budget that the project’s cost
had risen to NOK56.1bn ($6.2bn), up from

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