BP boosts Culzean field stake

JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration Corporation has sold a 16% working interest in a licence containing the Culzean field located in the UK North Sea to oil major BP. 

According to JX Nippon’s press release on Monday, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, JX Nippon Exploration and Production (U.K.) (JXNEPUK), sold its 16% working interest in Licence No. P.111, Block 22/25a to a subsidiary of BP, Britoil. As a result of this transaction, the participating interest of JXNEPUK in the Culzean development is 18.01%.

Britoil already had 16% interest in the field and with this transaction the company’s interest has now doubled totalling 32%. Maersk Oil is the operator of the field with 49.99% interest.

Culzean is a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) gas condensate field discovered in 2008 by Maersk Oil North Sea UK and its co-venturers, including JXNEPUK. It is the largest gas field discovered in the UK North Sea in the last decade.

The Field Development Plan was approved by the UK Government in August last year, and development work is progressing towards first production in 2019.

In the press release on Monday JX explained that the aim of this sale was to deliver the best allocation of JX’s management resources and to optimize JX’s asset portfolio across exploration, development and production assets.

Mark Thomas, BP Regional President North Sea Region, said: “This is a challenging time for the industry and we must continue to work together to ensure that when developments like Culzean, or other projects such as BP’s Quad 204 and Clair Ridge, come online they can be run as efficiently as possible.”

Thomas added: “BP has been focusing and refreshing its North Sea portfolio by bringing new fields into production, redeveloping and renewing existing producing facilities and divesting some of its more mature or less strategic assets.”

“Our deepening in Culzean further demonstrates our commitment to supporting the development of another UK field for the future.”