Wintershall, a 100%-BASF subsidiary, plans to optimize its portfolio by selling to Tellus Petroleum its interest in assets in four non-operated fields in a US$602 million deal.
The fields include Knarr (where Wintershall owns a 20% interest), Veslefrikk (4.5%), Ivar Aasen (6.4615%) and Yme (10%) on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).
Tellus Petroleum AS, which will be a 100%-subsidiary of Sequa Petroleum, will acquire Wintershall’s interests in the four fields. Also, because Wintershall is reducing its share in the own-operated Maria development by 15% to 35%, Tellus Petroleum will become a partner to develop that field, for which the plan for development and operation was recently submitted.
The package Wintershall is selling to Tellus Petroleum also includes equity stakes in seven exploration licenses in the vicinity of the Knarr, Maria and Ivar Aasen fields and in the Barents Sea, as well as ownership interests in the Utsira High Gas Pipeline (3.8769%), the Edvard Grieg Oil Pipeline (2.5846%) and the Knarr Gas Pipeline (20%).
According to Wintershall, the agreed upon purchase price for the transaction is $602 million, of which $40 million is subject to approval of the Maria Field development by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. In addition, Tellus Petroleum will make a further payment of up to $100 million, depending on the oil price during 2016 to 2019. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2015 but will be financially retroactive to 1 January 2015. The sale does not affect Wintershall’s production targets, which should be 190 MMboe by 2018.
Knarr
Knarr was discovered in 2008 with estimated gross recoverable reserves around 80 MMboe and is produced to the Petrojarl Knarr floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is leased from Teekay and moored about 120km off the Norwegian coast. Other field partners include BG (operator, 45%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (25%) and RWE DEA (10%).
Veslefrikk
Veslefrikk lies in Norwegian North Sea block 30/3 in production license 052, about 30km north of Oseberg. The field came on stream in 1989 as the first development off Norway to use a floating production unit, and was later redeveloped with the Veslefrikk A and Veslefrikk B facilities. Other field partners include Statoil (operator, 18%), Petoro (37%), Talisman Energy Norway (27%) and RWE DEA Norway (13.5%).
Ivar Aasen
Ivar Aasen is comprised of three deposits: Ivar Aasen, West Cable and Hanz. The field is estimated to contain 210 MMboe and production start-up is planned for 4Q 2016. Ivar Aasen will be a phased development, whereby Ivar Aasen and West Cable are developed in phase 1, using a manned production platform, and Hanz in phase 2, via a subsea development tied back to the Ivar Aasen platform. Det Norske Oljeselskap is the operator (34.7862%) and, including Wintershall, other field partners are Statoil Petroleum (41.4730%), Bayergas Norge (12.3173%), VNG Norge (3.0230%), Lundin Norway (1.3850%) and OMV Norge (0.5540%).
Yme
Yme is in the Egersund basin, 100km off the coast of Norway at a water depth of 93m in blocks 9/2 and 9/5 in the southeastern region of the North Sea. The maximum production of the Yme field is estimated to be 40,000 b/d. The field was originally discovered by Statoil in 1986, but was abandoned in 2001. Canada's Talisman Energy Norge, as operator, holds a 40% interest in the field and is redeveloping the field. In addition to Wintershall, the remaining interest in the field is held by Lotos Exploration and Production (20%), Bridge Energy (20%) and Norske AEDC (10%).
Maria
Wintershall will continue to be the operator for the Maria discovery. In recent years, Wintershall has expanded its daily production in Norway to an estimated 60,000 boe/d and is one of the largest license holders in Norway with more than 50 licenses, 50% of which it operates. The company employs about 2500 staff in 40 nations and is Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer.
Tellus Petroleum is an oil and gas company established in 2012 and based in Oslo. The investment arm of UK bank Barclays invested $200 million to bankroll the start-up’s bid to build a portfolio of producing assets. Tellus acquired PetroAdvisor AS in July 2012, but this deal is the new company’s first major acquisition.
On 18 June 2015, Sequa Petroleum announced an agreement to acquire Tellus Petroleum Invest AS and its subsidiary Tellus Petroleum AS.
Image: The Knarr FPSO at sailaway / Teekay
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