Ineos seeks to buy out ConocoPhillips assets

NORTH SEA: Petrochemicals giant has grown its oil and gas interests in recent years

Petrochemicals giant Ineos is in talks to acquire ConocoPhillips’s UK North Sea portfolio.

The group – which owns the giant petrochemicals complex at Grangemouth and the North Sea’s strategically vital Forties export pipeline – has reportedly entered into a threemonth exclusivity period with the US firm for the assets, with HSBC and Citigroup ready to provide financing.

An Ineos spokesman yesterday confirmed the company was “in discussions” with ConocoPhillips.

The package is worth an estimated £2.3 billion and includes ConocoPhillips’s stake in the giant Clair field, west of Shetland.

ConocoPhillips, which also operates the Britannia field, confirmed last week it was “marketing” its portfolio after receiving an “unsolicited offer”.

The company is one of several international oil companies to have been linked with a North Sea exit in the last 18 months, including Chevron and Marathon Oil.

In July, ConocoPhillips announced it would sell 16.5% of its equity in the Clair Field to BP, leaving it with 7.5%.

At the time, Luke Parker, analyst at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said the Houston-headquartered business’s complete withdrawal from the UK seemed “likely to follow”.

Newer, private-equity-backed companies are likely to take an interest in ConocoPhillips’s assets if the deal with Ineos falls through.

Swiss-headquartered Ineos has been expanding its North Sea footprint through acquisitions in recent years and became one of the basin’s top producers last September when it bought out Dong Energy’s oil and gas business for £1 billion.

The following month it acquired the Forties pipeline from BP.

Ineos was founded by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest man.