Oil firm Verus in $400m North Sea buyout

An Aberdeen-headquartered oil and gas firm has struck a $400 million (£301m) deal to buy stakes in a number of North Sea assets.

Verus Petroleum has agreed the purchase of Japaneseowned Cieco Exploration & Production (UK) which has holdings in the Western Isles Development Project – including the Harris and Barra oil fields – and the Hudson field.

The deal, which will add around 11,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to Verus’sdailyproductionrates, will also see it gain stakes in the Brent pipeline system and the Sullom Voe oil terminal.

Part of the funding package for the deal is being provided by Stavanger-based private equity firm Hitecvision which is the majority owner of Verus.

Alan Curran, chief executive of Verus Petroleum, said: “This transaction builds on our Boa oil field acquisition in 2017 and our acquisition of interests in the Alba oil field and the Babbage gas field earlier this year.”

Production at the Western Isles development has exceeded expectations since it started in November 2017 and it is currently yielding around 40,000 boepd, with an estimated field life of 15 years.

The Cieco deal agreed with Japanesefirmitochucorporation is expected to complete by the end of 2018 subject to regulatory approval.

North Sea-focused Hurricane Energy saw losses after tax rise to $75.1m in the first half of the year from $4.2m in the same period last year as it continued to invest heavily ahead of production starting from the Lancaster field, one of the largest new developments in the North Sea.

l0 ‘Builds on earlier deals’ – Verus CEO Alan Curran