17th May 2006 07:01
Petrofac Limited17 May 2006 PETROFAC LIMITED ("Petrofac") INVESTMENT IN UK NORTH SEA INTEREST Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, announcesthat its Resources division has increased its interest in Block 9/28a Part B(containing the Crawford Field, recently known as Cragganmore) from 5.58% to 29%and become the operator of the field. Petrofac Resources has acquired the 55.3% operated interest of Tuscan Energy(Cragganmore) Limited (Tuscan) and agreed to sell, on the same terms andconditions, part of the acquired interest to the other existing partners,Fairfield Acer Limited (Fairfield) and Stratic Energy (UK) Ltd (Stratic). Uponcompletion, Petrofac will have a 29% interest in the field, Fairfield will have52% and Stratic 19%. Following completion of the sale to Fairfield and Stratic, the net considerationpaid for the acquisition of Petrofac's additional interest will amount toapproximately US$1 million. Petrofac has assumed liability for the contingentpayments due under Tuscan's original purchase agreement, comprising a paymentshould a field development plan be approved and subsequent payments shouldcertain production levels in the field be achieved. Following satisfaction ofthe conditions precedent relating to the sale to Fairfield and Stratic andcompletion thereof, Petrofac's share of these contingent payments will amount toup to US$8.5 million. Ayman Asfari, Petrofac Group Chief Executive, commented: "With these changes to the field ownership and our role as operator, we believewe are in a better position to assess the viability of this previously abandonedasset." Ends For further information, please contact: Petrofac Limited +44 (0) 20 7811 4900 Ayman Asfari, Group Chief ExecutiveKeith Roberts, Chief Financial OfficerRobin Caiger, Head of Investor Relations Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial +44 (0) 20 7861 3232 Ben WoodfordGeoff Callow Notes to Editors The Crawford Field, which has been known recently as Cragganmore, was discoveredby well 9/28-2 drilled by Hamilton Brothers in 1975 and was subsequentlyappraised and developed in the late 1980s, producing approximately 4 millionbarrels of 30-35degreesAPI oil via a floating production vessel in the period1989 to 1990. Field performance fell below expectation and the field wasabandoned in the low oil price environment that existed in 1990. Fairfield is carrying out work on the subsurface on behalf of the joint venture.Using a modern re-processed 3D seismic study, Fairfield currently estimates thatthe initial oil in place volume is approximately 190 million barrels for thefield, of which approximately 140 million barrels (representing the largesttarget volume for development) are contained within the northern and easternarea of the field. Additional appraisal potential is expected in the untestedhorizons Current plans, which are at an early stage, assume that the field will bedeveloped in phases using modern drilling and completion techniques to reducerisk with wells tied back to one of two nearby production facilities. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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