PGNiG expands footprint in Norway

On 18th October PGNiG announced that it had agreed to acquire Equinor's interest in the Tommeliten Alpha gas and condensate field in the Norwegian North Sea. This continues PGNiG's strategy of diversifying its gas supply away from Russia. PGNiG has always had an interest in Norwegian gas seeing it as as logical and accessible source of gas for Poland. As the long term Russian gas supply contracts come to expiry, PGNiG is making bold moves to...

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Majors pick up acreage in Brazil

Equinor press release: Equinor, ExxonMobil and Petrogal Brasil presented the winning bid (75.49% profit oil) for the Uirapuru production sharing contract in the Santos basin. Petrobras exercised its right to enter the consortium and will be the operator with 30% equity. The final equity distribution is Petrobras (30% operator), Equinor (28%), ExxonMobil (28%) and Petrogal Brasil (14%). The pre-determined signature bonus to be paid by the bidding...

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Bidders pull out of Alba sale by Statoil and Mitsui

Deloitte has launched the sale of Endeavour Energy UK. The US parent company of Endeavour Energy UK is going through bankruptcy proceedings and Deloitte has been appointed to monetise the company’s UK unit. Endeavour Energy UK owns a 25.7% in Alba amongst other North Sea assets. This is larger than Statoil’s 17% or Mitsui’s 13.3% stake which is being marketed. Although Statoil and Mitsui have been trying to sell their stakes since the end of...

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Chevron shuts in Alba platform as Mitsui and Statoil try to sell the field

Chevron the operator of the Alba field in the UK North Sea has announced at the end of last week that it had been forced to shut down production at the field. This follows a power outage at the platform. Emergency back-up power is in place and the crew continues to try and restore power. The mature heavy oil field which was brought onstream in 1994 is exploited from a fixed platform tied to a floating storage unit. Endeavour had tried to sell...

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Endeavour endangers Alba sale for Statoil and Mitsui

Statoil and Mitsui started marketing their stakes in the Alba heavy oil field in the North Sea at the end of 2017. The field is located in a complex reservoir and developed from a steel platform tied to a floating storage unit. The field has been marketed by partner Endeavour before without success. Endeavour put its stake up for sale in 2015 but failed to attract sufficient interest. Sources have revealed that interest in the current sales...

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Norway awards record 75 exploration licences in 2017 APA

Norway has awarded a record number of 75 exploration licences in the APA 2017 licensing round to 34 companies. The licences comprised 45 in the Norwegian North Sea, 22 in the Norwegian Sea and 8 in the Barents Sea. Statoil was the biggest winnder with 31 awards. Supermajors ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total also picked up licences. Of the E&Ps: Aker BP was the winner with 23 licences (14 as operator) Lundin has been awarded 14 licences (5 as operator) DNO has been awarded in 10 licences Faroe Petroleum has been awarded 8 licences...

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Statoil acquires Martin Linge from Total for USD1.45bn

Total has agreed to sell all of its interests in the Martin Linge field (51%) and Garantiana discovery (40%) on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to Statoil for USD1.45bn with an effective date of January 1st, 2017.Statoil will also receive remaining tax balances with a nominal post-tax value of more than USD 1 billion. Martin Linge is a long life oil and gas development with estimated recoverable resources in excess of 300 mmboe. Originally scheduled...

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Statoil acquires a further stake in Lundin Petroleum

On 14th January, Statoil announced that it had acquired 37.1 million shares in Lundin Petroleum, corresponding to 11.9% of the company. Statoil says that it paid c.SEK4.6 billion for the shares, which equates to a price of SEK120/share or a 28% premium to the share price close as of yesterday at SEK97. Statoil purchased the shares over the past few weeks and says it is supportive of Lundin management, its board of directors and strategy, but there...

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Statoil acquires stake in Lundin Petroleum

On 14th January, Statoil announced that it had acquired 37.1 million shares in Lundin Petroleum, corresponding to 11.9% of the company. Statoil says that it paid c.SEK4.6 billion for the shares, which equates to a price of SEK120/share or a 28% premium to the share price close as of yesterday at SEK97. Statoil purchased the shares over the past few weeks and says it is supportive of Lundin management, its board of directors and strategy, but there...

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Repsol and Statoil announce asset swap

Alfa Sentral platform in the North Sea On 11th December, Statoil and Repsol announced that they had entered into number of asset swaps as part of a packaged deal: In the North Sea, Statoil farms down a 15% WI in Gudrun (Norway), whilst retaining operatorship and will acquire a 31% WI in Alfa Sentral (UK portion), a field which spans the UK-Norway border In the US, Statoil acquires a 13% WI in the Eagle Ford JV and becomes operator, taking...

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