UK North Sea oil and gas fields bought by private groups

Tailwind, a private oil producer backed by commodity trader Mercuria, has agreed to buy BP’s stake in the Shearwater oilfield in the British North Sea, it said on Monday.

The British North Sea has been undergoing a changing of the guard with oil majors selling oil and gas fields to private equity-owned groups.

The new owners say they can squeeze out more and cheaper barrels from North Sea fields than big companies, making faster decisions and specialising in North Sea extraction.

Here is a list of recent deals:

Deals in 2016

* OMV sells its British North Sea assets to Siccar Point,backed by private equity groups Blackstone and Bluewater, for upto $1 billion. * BP merges its Norwegian North Sea assets with Det norske,creating a new entity Aker BP.

Deals in 2017

* Royal Dutch Shell sells North Sea assets to Chrysaor,backed by Harbour Energy, an investment vehicle of EIG GlobalEnergy Partners, in a $3.8 billion deal. * Engie sells its exploration and production business,including North Sea assets, to Neptune, backed by private equityfunds Carlyle Group and CVC, in a $3.9 billion deal.

Deals in 2019

* ConocoPhillips sells North Sea assets to Chrysaor foraround $2.6 billion. * Chevron sells North Sea assets to Israel’s Delek Group for$2 billion. * Exxon sells Norwegian North Sea assets to Var Energi,backed by Eni and private equity fund HitecVision for $4.5billion.

Deals in 2020

* Premier Oil will be renamed Harbour Energy Plc after areverse takeover by private equity-backed Chrysaor due tocomplete in the first quarter of 2021.

Deals in 2021

* Exxon agrees to sell its non-operating interest in its UKand North Sea exploration and production assets toprivate-equity fund HitecVision for more than $1 billion. * Cairn Energy agrees to sell its stakes in British fieldsCatcher and Kraken to private equity firm Waldorf Production for$460 million. * Tailwind, a private oil producer backed by commoditytrader Mercuria, has agreed to buy BP’s stake in the Shearwateroilfield.

Source: Reuters

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