Hague and London Oil gets hold of more North Sea assets

Oil and gas company Hague and London Oil (HALO) has made a deal to acquire several assets in the Dutch & UK sectors of the North Sea from ONE-Dyas (OND).

According to HALO’s statement on Wednesday, these interests consist of 7.9% of the Sillimanite Development Unit, straddling the Dutch & UK median line in the North Sea; 0.85% of the Joint Development Area (JDA); 2.34% of the Western Gas Transmission (WGT) pipeline system, including the onshore Den Helder gas processing facilities; and, 4.167% net profit interests (NPl) on blocks in and adjacent to the JDA, from OND.

HALO said it would pay a purchase price to OND of €8.85 million ($9.7M) paid in cash at the closing of the sales purchase agreement (SPA), subject to working capital adjustments between the effective date and closing of the SPA.

The company said that the completion amount would be funded through existing cash resources of the company, structured finance associated with the existing and expanded portfolio or secured lending against hydrocarbon gas volumes within HALO’s portfolio.

The proposed acquisition will be subject to all requisite third party, regulatory and government (eg. Netherlands & UK) approvals or waivers.

The effective date of the proposed transaction will be January 1, 2019, with the completion amount paid at the time of closing. The proposed acquisition will increase HALO’s interests in the JDA and WGT to 10.80% and 11.22% respectively and a new entry with 7.9% of the Sillimanite Development Unit comprised of 11.73% Block 44/19a (UK (includes the Sillimanite West Discovery)) and 7.037% Block D12b (Netherlands).

Additionally, the proposed acquisition removes a financial burden on the company’s existing JDA stake plus adding NPI on other participants in: K8, L13 and Partial Block L12. Once completed, the proposed transaction would immediately add ca. 2 mmboe of reserves and an estimated 800-1,000 boepd of production by 4Q 20.

Andrew Cochran, Chairman & Interim CEO, commented: “This proposed acquisition represents a unique opportunity to add to the existing portfolio as well as expanding it within HALO’s established ‘core’ areas, including transportation & infrastructure. Sillimanite is already under development and would add materially to the company’s production profile next year as well as adding reserves immediately upon a successful closing; also, the proposed acquisition would establish HALO’s first production in the UK ahead of the Greater Pegasus Area development project.”

Previously, HALO bought Tullow Oil’s gas producing assets in the Dutch North Sea through an acquisition which was completed in November 2017. The acquisition comprised interests in 12 licenses on the Dutch Continental Shelf (DCS) in the Northern Area and a suite of interests in the Joint Development Area in the western part of the DCS. The acreage spreads over 2,878 sq km which generated total net production of 2,900 boepd in 2016.

In September 2018, HALO entered into an agreement for the conditional acquisition of the entire share capital of Third Energy Offshore whose portfolio includes interests in the Greater Pegasus Area (45%), and the high impact Andromeda prospect in the Southern North Sea.

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