The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
UK oil firm ups stake in North Sea Arran field
Growth: RockRose Energy on rise
Fast-growing UK oil firm RockRose Energy has managed to beef up its stake in a North Sea field by another 10%.
RockRose has also ticked all the boxes needed to get its £95 million acquisition of Dyas BV over the line.
Last month, RockRose agreed to buy Dana Petroleum’s entire 20.43% operated interested in the Arran field development in the central North Sea for a “nominal fee”.
The company has now signed an “equity realignment letter agreement” that takes its interest to 30.43%.
It is understood that the additional 10% will come from Zennor Petroleum, which currently holds 47.36% of the asset.
The acquisition, expected to go through later this month, will add a further 8.5 million barrels to RockRose’s reserves base and 5,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of initial production postdevelopment.
Arran is expected to be developed as a subsea tieback to Shell’s Shearwater platform.
The other project partners are Shell, with 23.68%, and Dyas UK, which is on 8.53%.
It is understood Shell will take over from Dana as Arran operator.
Meanwhile, RockRose’s purchase of Dyas BV will be completed on October 1.
Dyas BV owns the nonoperated, Netherlands gas and condensate producing assets of the Dyas group of companies.
The transaction, first announced in May and effective January 1 2018, will boost RockRose’s output to 11,000 boepd for the full year.
The firm produced just over 5,000 boepd on average in the first half of this year.
RockRose also owns 50% of the Tain satellite discovery, which is operated by Repsol Sinopec Resources UK.
A field development plan for Tain is slated for submission later this year.
“We continue to benefit from rising hydrocarbon prices”
Executive chairman Andrew Austin said: “We continue to make strong progress and are in the process of completing two further acquisitions, which will more than double current production.
“All conditions precedent for the Dyas acquisition have now been satisfied. We continue to benefit from rising hydrocarbon prices.
“We are also observing an increase in the economic life of the portfolio with dates for decommissioning being delayed in line with the government’s MER (maximising economic recovery) strategy.
“The company sees the cash cost of decommissioning averaging around 20-25% of annual Ebitda for the next five years at current hydrocarbon prices.”
Mr Austin was speaking after RockRose posted first-half, pre-tax profits of £3.8m, compared to a deficit of £1.8m last year.
Revenues for the first half of 2018 came to £50m.
RockRose has been busy doing deals in the North Sea in the last few years.
Last year, it wrapped up the acquisition of Egerton Energy Ventures, giving it a 27.8% non-operated interest in the Galahad field and 8.33% of Mordred.
The purchase of Sojitz Energy Project gave RockRose stakes in three assets, while its swoop for Idemitsu Petroleum added interests in 10 North Sea fields.