Cairn divests Catcher interest

Cairn will sell a 10% interest in the Catcher development and adjacent acreage in the UK North Sea.

With effect from 1 January 2014 Dyas UK Limited (Dyas) will acquire 10% in each of the following UK Continental Shelf licences P1430, P2040, P2070, P2077 and P2086 by funding Cairn’s exploration and development costs in respect of the licences up to a cap of $182million.

Following this transaction Cairn will retain a 20% interest in the Premier Oil-operated Catcher licence and a reduced interest in each of the remaining licences.

As a result of this transaction Cairn will reduce its capital expenditure to the end of 2017 in the Catcher area by approximately $380m to $200m.

Licence P1430 (Catcher) received UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) approval of its Field Development Plan (FDP) in June 2014. Licences P2040, P2070, P2077 and P2086 are adjacent licences in the Greater Catcher area.

Catcher is expected to produce 96 million barrels of oil equivalent with a peak production rate of around 50,000 barrels of oil per day.

The project will entail the drilling of 22 subsea wells (14 producers and 8 water injectors) on the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields which will be tied back to a leased FPSO. The oil will be offloaded by tankers while the gas will be exported through the SEGAL facilities.

Simon Thomson, Chief Executive, Cairn Energy PLC said: “Cairn remains focused on delivering value for shareholders from disciplined capital allocation and portfolio management across a balanced asset base. This value enhancing transaction provides us with significant additional operational flexibility to deliver the Group’s strategy.”