Cairn offloads Norwegian arm

Cairn Energy, the Edinburghheadquartered oil explorer and producer, is putting an end to owning assets in Norway by inking a $100 million (£78m) deal to offload oilfield operator Capricorn Norge.

The FTSE 250 company is selling its wholly owned subsidiary to Solveig Gas Norway, with the transaction set to take effect 1 January. The buyer will also pay customary working capital adjustments on completion.

Cairn will use the proceeds of the disposal to fund its ongoing business. Additionally, following the deal, Cairn will reduce its committed exploration and development capital expenditure by about $100m.

Cairn chief executive Simon Thomson said: “This is a further attractive transaction for Cairn shareholders in line with our consistent strategy to realise value and redeploy capital within our portfolio.

“We continue to have a material business in the UK North Sea where production performance of the Kraken and Catcher assets remains strong.”

The transaction is expected to complete in early 2020 and remains subject to relevant approvals.

Cairn also pointed out that the gross asset value of the interests being transferred, as per its half-year report issued in September, was $207.4m, and the net asset value $80.1m.

Additionally, Capricorn Norge made a loss of $6.5m for the period ending 30 June.

Cairn Energy last month said a decision over its longrunning £1 billion-plus tax claim against the Indian government is unlikely to be made until next summer. The firm also made a disappointing starttoitsdrillingprogramme off the coast of Mexico.

The Scottish business – which has operational offices in London, Norway, Senegal and Mexico – in September reported that it had swung back into the black in the first half – booking a pre-tax profit of $43.4m compared to a $602.9m loss the year before.