RockRose gives up on two North Sea fields

UK-based independent RockRose Energy has withdrawn from the negotiations with Maersk Oil North Sea UK Limited to acquire the interests in the Scott and Telford fields in the North Sea. 

The duo started discussions about the sale of Maersk Oil’s interest in three UK fields, Scott, Telford and Wytch Farm, back in 2016. At the time Maersk owned 5.16%, 2.36%, and 7.43% interest in these fields, respectively.

An agreement between the two for the sale of stakes in these three fields was signed in December 2016 but it was conditional upon the usual regulatory permissions from the UK’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and certain third party consents.

By June 2017 the OGA confirmed that Maersk Oil North Sea UK would receive the regulator’s consent for the assignment of its interest in license P218, which contains the Scott and Telford fields, to RockRose in due course.

However, before the two managed to close the deal, several partners in the onshore Wytch Farm field exercised their pre-emption rights on that asset leaving Maersk and RockRose to work on closing the deal for the Scott and Telford assets.

On Friday, January 26 RockRose announced the withdrawal from the deal with Maersk Oil North Sea.

The company explained that, despite support from the OGA, the gaining of partner consent would have required material changes to the terms of the Maersk transaction which would have made it unattractive to shareholders.

RockRose added it was actively involved in reviewing several other potential transactions having now closed the acquisitions of Idemitsu Petroleum UK Limited, Egerton Energy Ventures Limited and Sojitz Energy Project Limited.

Scott & Telford

The Scott platform, which came on stream in 1993, produces crude oil and natural gas from the Scott, Telford and Rochelle fields. Scott is located about 188 km northeast of Aberdeen in 142 meters of water.

The Scott installation comprises two independent bridge linked platforms each supported by steel jackets. The two platforms are the drilling and process platform (DP), and the utilities and quarters platform (UQ).

Oil from the platform is exported via the Forties pipeline to the Kinneil Terminal in Scotland. Natural gas is exported via the SAGE pipeline system.

Discovered in 1991, Telford is located nine km south of the Scott platform in blocks 15/21a and 15/22. It was developed via a number of subsea wells tied-back to the Scott installation through subsea infrastructure and began production in 1996.

Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited, a subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, is the operator of  Scott, Telford and Rochelle with 41.90%, 80.40% and 41% interests, respectively.

Offshore Energy Today Staff