Hungarian integrated oil and gas firm MOL Group has entered the North Sea through a $US375 million deal with Wintershall, a subsidiary of Germany's BASF Group.
MOL will acquire 14 licenses in the North Sea, including non-operated equity stakes in the Broom field (29%), and the Catcher (20%), Cladhan (33.5%) and Scolty/Crathes (50%) developments.
Wintershall’s equity share in existing infrastructure on the Sullom Voe Terminal and the Brent Pipeline System are also part of the deal.
MOL and Wintershall also signed a strategic cooperation memorandum to develop their partnership and jointly pursue E&P opportunities in both the North Sea and the Middle East region. MOL said both companies had an intention to establish a long-lasting, active partnership and knowledge-transfer, to utilize each other’s expertise and experience in regions previously not present in their core regions.
“This is a milestone in MOL’s history," said MOL Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi at the signing ceremony. "We are sending a clear message to our investors and our competitors that MOL Group is serious about expansion and is able to grow in new areas. The North Sea is a well-developed area and carries relatively low political risk compared with some of our other investments, which reduces MOL’s overall E&P “political risk” profile, and the United Kingdom provides a predictable and transparent regulatory environment.”
Rainer Seele, chairman of the board of executive directors of Wintershall said: “With the divestment of non-operated assets, we can concentrate on strengthening our competencies in exploration, field development and production activities on own-operated assets in the North Sea.” In addition to the transaction, MOL and Wintershall also signed a cooperation agreement to develop their partnership and jointly pursue exploration and production opportunities in both the North Sea and the Middle East region."