UK oil & gas firm gets more time for acquisition of North Sea discovery

UK-headquartered oil and gas company Quattro Energy Limited has experienced a delay in the acquisition of United Oil & Gas’ license in the Central North Sea, which includes an existing hydrocarbon discovery. 

After United Oil & Gas decided to sell its UK Central North Sea licence P2519, containing the Maria discovery in the Outer Moray Firth Basin, it entered into a binding asset purchase agreement (APA) with Quattro Energy for up to £5.7 million (around $6.95 million). The long stop date for the satisfaction of the APA conditions was 16 April 2023.

However, the company explained on Monday, 17 April 2023, that it had agreed to an extension of the long stop date with Quattro. As a result, this has been extended until 17 May 2023 to allow additional time for the APA conditions required for completion to be satisfied.

United was awarded the license P2519 in December 2020. The Maria discovery, which is located within this license, includes Blocks 15/18e and 15/19c, covering an area of approximately 225 km2, close to existing infrastructure in a “highly prospective area” of the Central North Sea, as previously explained by the company.

The area encompasses the Marigold and Yeoman discoveries, where significant development activity is taking place and the substantial Piper, MacCulloch and Claymore oil fields. The Maria discovery within the Upper Palaeocene Forties Sandstone was discovered by Shell/Esso in 1976 while drilling for deeper, Piper-equivalent targets, but at the time was not considered commercially viable. 

Furthermore, United holds a 100 per cent equity interest in the license P2519 and has a carrying value of approximately £0.7 million (about $0.85 million) as of 31 December 2022, based on the firm’s unaudited management accounts. The license also has an independently audited mid-case 2C gross contingent resource estimate of 6.3 mmbbls and 23.3Bcf (10.2 mmboe).