Norway: Noreco Cancels Sale of its Interests in Oselvar and Enoch Fields to Marubeni

Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco) has chosen to terminate the agreement to sell Noreco’s interests in the Oselvar and Enoch fields to Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni).

The agreement with Marubeni was entered into in September 2010. On 3 March 2011 it was announced that the buyer had not yet fulfilled the requirements applicable to a licensee on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. This is still the situation.

“The Oselvar development is progressing according to plan and the strong improvement of market fundamentals has contributed to a significant increase in the value of the field. Noreco therefore sees the decision to terminate the agreement with Marubeni as accretive to shareholder value, and the company will continue investing in the Oselvar field development. The remaining investment cost is expected to be financed with new debt,” says Noreco’s CEO Einar Gjelsvik.

Oselvar is an oil and gas field under development, located in license PL274 and PL274CS in the southern North Sea. Noreco has a 15 percent interest in the field, representing reserves of 8.1 million barrels of oil equivalents (mmboe). Production is expected to start during the first half of 2012, somewhat later than originally planned due to rescheduling of installation works on the Ula host platform. License PL274 also contains another discovery named Ipswich.

Enoch is an oil field located in the Central North Sea, straddling the border between Norway and UK. Noreco owns 4.36 percent of the field through its 21.8 percent share in license PL048D. Reserves were 0.3 mmboe at the end of 2010.

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Source:Noreco,March 30, 2011;