Siccar Point Energy, a company backed by Blackstone, the US private equity group, has agreed to pay up to $1bn for the North Sea assets of Austria’s OMV.
It marks the biggest acquisition in the UK offshore energy industry since crude prices crashed two years ago and highlights the interest of private equity investors in the North Sea as cash-strapped oil companies shed assets.
For Aberdeen-based Siccar, the deal seals its arrival as a serious player in the North Sea with stakes in three of the biggest new UK oilfields alongside partners including BP, Chevron and Statoil.
For Vienna-based OMV, the disposal supports efforts to streamline its business in the face of weak oil prices and refocus on lower-cost regions such as the Middle East, Africa and Russia.
OMV is the latest of several energy companies to exit or reduce their presence in the North Sea — one of the world’s oldest and highest-cost offshore oil basins.
However, Mustafa Siddiqui, who heads Blackstone’s energy activities in Europe, said there was still value to be found in UK waters.
“The death knell for North Sea oil and gas has not yet rung,” he told the Financial Times. “There are parties like us who want to invest in the basin and find new oil but we have to be selective.”
The OMV disposal includes 11.8 per cent of the Schiehallion oilfield, which is due to come back on stream soon after redevelopment by BP and Royal Dutch Shell, and a 20 per cent stake in the Rosebank field, which is awaiting development by Chevron.
These assets will add to the 8.9 per cent stake in the Mariner field, operated by Statoil and due to start production next year, which Siccar bought from JX Nippon of Japan in August.
“These are all world-class assets,” said Mr Siddiqui. “Yes the North Sea is a mature basin but there are a number of young, long-lived, high-quality assets still available.”
Siccar Point has also held talks about North Sea assets being sold by Shell as part of the Anglo-Dutch group’s $30bn disposal programme. Mr Siddiqui said Siccar had capacity for more deals but declined to comment on whether it was still interested in buying from Shell.
Other potential private equity investors in the North Sea include Neptune, funded by Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners, and led by Sam Laidlaw, former chief executive of Centrica, the UK energy supplier.
Rainer Seele, OMV chief executive, said its exit from the UK would make “a major contribution to rebalance and optimise the OMV upstream portfolio”. The deal, which included interests in 22 licences at various stages of development and production, followed an agreement last year with Russia’s Gazprom to swap some Norwegian assets for a stake in Siberian gasfields.
OMV had increased its UK operations as recently as 2013. As a result of the sale it recorded a €458m impairment in its third-quarter results announced Wednesday based on the difference between the book value of the assets and the sale proceeds. The write-off was partly offset by foreign exchange gains resulting from the transaction, OMV said.
The $1bn proceeds from the deal include a fixed payment of $750m and $125m payable if an investment project goes ahead, plus a further $125m in respect of recent investment outlays.
Separately, OMV said on Tuesday that the sale of its 49 per cent stake in Gas Connect Austria, a gas distribution business, would raise €601m in the fourth quarter. For the third quarter, it reported “clean” earnings before interest and tax of €415m — down from €495m a year earlier.
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