Vår Energi’s intra-group merger approaching the finish line

Norwegian oil and gas player Vår Energi has approved the plan for the recently announced intra-group merger with its wholly-owned subsidiary Vår Energi Norge.

Following last month’s merger announcement, the boards of directors of the Norwegian company and its subsidiary greenlighted the merger plan on April 22, 2024. The merger is expected to be completed in late 2Q 2024 after a statutory six-week creditor notice period has passed.

Vår Energi Norge was created when Italy’s Eni acquired Neptune Energy‘s entire oil and gas business aside from German and Norwegian assets, due to the former being carved out before the completion of the acquisition and the latter being acquired by Vår Energi under a separate share purchase agreement. 

After the acquisition was completed in February, Vår Energi reported that the combined company was not only the second-largest independent exploration firm on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) but also the second-largest supplier of gas from Norway to Europe.

Vår Energi recently made an oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea that could be tied to the firm’s existing infrastructure in the area. The estimated recoverable resources of the Ringhorne North exploration well and two additional side-track/appraisal wells are between 13 and 23 million barrels of oil.

Aside from searching for more hydrocarbons, the Norwegian firm is also working on field life extension projects, such as the Balder X one. The timeline for this project, aimed at extending the lifetime of the Balder field, was changed two months ago, bumping the first oil to 2Q 2024.