UK regulator to let Maersk Oil sell North Sea stakes to RockRose

UK independent RockRose Energy has made progress in getting interests in a pair of UK North Sea fields from Maersk Oil North Sea UK, a UK subsidiary of the Danish oil firm Maersk Oil. 

RockRose Energy said on Thursday that the UK’s oil regulator OGA had confirmed that Maersk Oil North Sea UK will receive the regulator’s consent for the assignment of its interest in license P218 to RockRose in due course. The license contains the Scott and Telford fields.

To remind, RockRose last December signed an agreement with Maersk Oil to buy stakes in three of its fields. Two of the fields, Scott and Telford, are located in the UK sector of the North Sea, and the third one, Wytch Farm, is located onshore UK. Maersk owns 5.16%, 2.36%, and 7.43% interest in these fields, respectively.

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

Also in March, RockRose signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Egerton Energy Ventures Limited including non-operated interests in the Galahad (27.80%) and Mordred (8.33%) gas fields located in the Southern North Sea.

Scott

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. 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.

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% interest, respectively.

Offshore Energy Today Staff