Norway’s and Spain’s largest oil companies, Statoil and Repsol, respectively, have announced several transactions in Norway, UK, Brazil and US.
Under the transaction announced on Friday, Repsol will acquire a fifteen percent stake in Statoil’s Gudrun field offshore Norway. Statoil will stay operator with 36 percent stake.
At the same time, the Norwegian energy company will acquire from Repsol a 13% interest in the Eagle Ford joint venture in the US and become its sole operator. Repsol will retain a 37% interest.
Both transactions are valued at the same amount.
Furthermore, Statoil will acquire a 31% equity share in the UK licence for Alfa Sentral, held by Talisman–Sinopec UK, for approximately $20 million. Alfa Sentral spans the UK-Norway maritime border. Statoil says that the field is a priority project for Statoil and its development, as a tie back to the existing Sleipner infrastructure, will help to prolong and develop further the Sleipner area in Norway.
Statoil will also assume operatorship of the BM-C-33 licence in Brazil’s Campos basin, pending approval from authorities and licence partners. According to Statoil, this will allow Statoil to use its deep-water and gas experience to develop the BM-C-33 discoveries. The licence contains the high impact discovery in the Pão de Açúcar prospect made in the BM-C-33 licence in 2012. Total estimated block resources have been estimated at around 700 million barrels of light crude and 3 trillion cubic feet of gas.
„We are delighted to be deepening our relationship with Repsol. In the current challenging market environment, these are innovative, value-enhancing transactions which will help control costs and strengthen Statoil’s portfolio for the long term” , said John Knight , Statoil’s Executive Vice-President for Global Strategy & Business Development.
Offshore Energy Today Staff