Page 16 - EurOil Week 02 2021

EurOil INVESTMENT EurOil

BP relaunches search for North Sea buyer

UK BP has relaunched the sale of some of its North the matter. Having already parted with billions
Sea interests, following the collapse of a previous of dollars of assets, the UK major is aiming to
A deal with Premier deal with Premier Oil, Reuters reported on Jan- offload a further $25bn by 2025, as part of its
Oil fell through after uary 7 citing sources. plan to move away from oil and gas and towards
the company agreed a The UK major agreed to divest its Andrew renewables. It has just disposed of its petrochem-
merger with North Sea Area and Shearwater assets to Premier in Janu- icals business in a $5bn deal with the UK’s Ineos.
rival Chrysaor. ary, initially for $625mn, but the price tag was The interests BP is selling include 100% own-
later renegotiated to $210mn in light of the oil ership of the Arundel and Cyrus fields, a 77%
price collapse. The deal was then scuppered alto- stake in the Kinnoull field and shares of 62.8%
gether when Premier announced in October its and 50% in the Andrew and Farragon depos-
merger with fellow North Sea player Chrysaor. its. All five fields produce through the Andrew
BP has now put the sales process back on platform. The major is also divesting a 27.5%
track, according to Reuters, inviting companies position at the Royal Dutch Shell-operated
to bid for the assets without a deadline. But the Shearwater field.
producer is unlikely to collect more than $80mn While scaling back in the North Sea, BP has
from the sale, the news agency said. said it remains focused on its core growth areas
After the deal was clinched with Chrysaor, in the region, namely the Clair, Quad 204 and
Premier CEO Tony Durrant said he expected ETAP hubs.
talks between BP and the combined entity, A number of other North Sea players are
which will be known as Harbour Energy, to be seeking buyers, as M&A activity looks set to
revived at a later point. Aberdeen-based West- heat up as market conditions have become less
wood Global said in October that Harbour was volatile in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-
likely to continue on its buying spree in order to 19) pandemic. ExxonMobil is reported to have
offset declining production rates at some of its resumed efforts to sell its UK North Sea business,
older assets. while China’s CNOOC is understood to be seek-
As of press time, BP has not commented on ing a buyer for the Scott platform.™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES

Gazprom, Wintershall start

up Dutch gas field

NETHERLANDS THE Wintershall Noordzee joint venture makes it even more so.”
between Germany’s Wintershall Dea and Rus- Wintershall Noordzee, a 50:50 partnership
Progress at Sillimanite sia’s Gazprom has brought on stream its second between Wintershall and Gazprom, manages a
has been offset gas field in less than 12 months. total of 15 producing platforms and four subsea
by delays at the The company has launched production at installations across the Dutch, UK, German and
Rembrandt and the D12-B3 well that discovered the Sillimanite Danish North Sea. It operates the two Sillimanite
Vermeer oilfields. South field in the Dutch North Sea last year, it fields with a 39.5% stake, while the Netherlands’
said in a statement on January 12. Sillimanite state-owned EBN has 50% and Neptune holds
South lies next to Wintershall Noordzee’s Sil- 10.5%.
limanite field, straddling the border between Despite its progress at Sillimanite, Winter-
Dutch and UK waters. The company commis- shall Noordzee has suffered setbacks elsewhere
sioned wells at Sillimanite in February and June because of regulatory problems in the Nether-
of 2020. lands. The company said in November it had
Gas from Sillimanite South is piped to the axed plans to develop the Rembrandt and Ver-
D12-B platform, from where it will be delivered meer oilfields in the country after delays getting
to the Neptune Energy-run D15-A platform and permits. The projects fell foul of new rules gov-
then to shore via the Noordgastransport system. erning nitrogen emissions, which have put bil-
“Delivery of a well directly from the explora- lions of dollars of projects across many sectors
tion phase straight into the production phase is a on hold.
unique performance in itself,” Wintershall Noor- Making matters worse, Dutch producers have
dzee’s managing director Jone Hess commented. also had to contend with high carbon taxation,
“Doing so whilst having to operate under strin- low gas prices and various coronavirus (COVID-
gent measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic 19) restrictions over the past year. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 14•January•2021