6th Nov 2018 11:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Serica Energy PLC said Tuesday it signed a further agreement to acquire additional interest in the Bruce and Keith fields in the UK North Sea from Marubeni Oil & Gas (UK) Ltd.
Serica will purchase a 3.75% interest in the Bruce field and an 8.33% interest in the Keith field from Marubeni, raising its total holding in the Bruce and Keith fields to 98% and 100%, respectively, after purchases from BP PLC, Total SA and BHP Billiton PLC.
The structure of the transaction with Marubeni differs from the other deals that Serica has entered into, the company said.
In fact, Serica will acquire the decommissioning obligations of Marubeni, but will receive in turn a cash consideration from Marubeni, and there will be no deferred or contingent consideration.
The acquisition is expected to increase Serica's proven and probable net reserves to 63.7 million barrels of oil equivalent.
On Monday, Serica said it inked a deal with BHP to acquire a 16% interest in Bruce and a 32% stake in Keith for GBP1 million.
The Marubeni purchase is conditional on completion of a transaction with BP.
In November 2017, Serica agreed to buy a 36% interest in Bruce, a 34.8% stake in Keith and a 50% stake in Rhum, also in the UK North Sea - collectively known as the BKR assets - from oil major BP for an initial cash consideration of GBP12.8 million with an additional contingent consideration of up to GBP39.1 million depending on production milestones and gas price thresholds being met.
Serica shares were up 2.8% at 131.58 pence each on Tuesday.