Japan's JX buys stakes in 25 UK North Sea oil, gas fields from Italy's Eni
Tokyo (Platts)--20Dec2012/538 am EST/1038 GMT
Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Thursday said its wholly owned
subsidiary JX Nippon Exploration and Production (UK) Limited has acquired
stakes in 25 oil and gas fields in the UK Continental Shelf from Italy's Eni.
The acquisition includes stakes in 17 producing oil and gas fields,
seven undeveloped oil and gas fields and an oil field under development, JX
said. Financial details were not disclosed.
The deal includes a 20% stake in Claymore oil field, in which Canadian
operator Talisman holds a 72.48% stake and South Korea's Dana the balance
7.52%, and lifts JX's stake in the Culzean gas field to 34.01% from 17.06%,
in which Danish operator Maersk holds 49.99%.
The acquisition also includes a 28.89% stake in the Mariner oil field,
in which Norway's Statoil is operator with a 65.11% stake and the balance
owned by UK's Cairn, and increased JX's stake in the Kinnoull oil field to
22.94% from 6.27%, in which operator BP owns the balance 77.06%. That field
is due to start production in 2013.
JX's oil and gas production in the UK North Sea will rise to
40,000-50,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day in 2020 from 9,000 boe/d in 2011
as a result of the deal, the company said.
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"This is an important contribution to JX's upstream goal of global
production of 200,000 boe/d by 2020," JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration
president Shigeo Hirai said in a statement.
"The acquisition of these assets gives JX substantial long-term oil and
gas production in the UK, where it has built up considerable expertize over
the past 20 years."
The transfer of the license interests is subject to standard UK
regulatory and joint venture approvals and some assets are also subject to
pre-emption by existing participants, the company said.
JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration is wholly owned by JX Holdings.
--Atsuko Kawasaki, atsuko_kawasaki@platts.com
--Edited by Wendy Wells, wendy_wells@platts.com