Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – HitecVision and its majority owned portfolio company, Point Resources, have agreed to acquire ExxonMobil’s operated upstream business in Norway.
This comprises operated interests in the producingBalder (100%), Ringhorne (100%), and Ringhorne Øst (77%) fields; the partially developed Forseti field (100%); the Jotun Unit, where production ceased in 2016 (90%); and adjoining exploration areas that contain a number of undrilled prospects. All are in the North Sea.
Also included in the transaction is theJotun A floating production facility and ExxonMobil’s Sandnes offices in southwest Norway, and a transfer of around 300 of ExxonMobil’s offshore and onshore E&P staff in the country.
Point Resources was formed in 2016 from the merger of Core Energy, Spike Exploration, and Pure Exploration to create a new full cycle E&P organization focused on the Norwegian continental shelf. It has offices in Oslo and Stavanger.
Assuming regulatory and partner consents, the new, combined company will become one of the top independent oil and gas producers on the shelf with 350 employees.
Production in 2016 from the combined assets was around 60,000 boe/d, of which roughly 54,000 boe/d came from the ExxonMobil-operated fields.
The combined company will target more than 80,000 boe/d by 2022, and will have reserves and contingent resources of about 350 MMboe.
HitecVision and Point Resources intend to invest in the acquired assets. Point has already identified various infill drilling targets within the Balder, Ringhorne, and Ringhorne Øst fields and plans to drill more than 10 wells over the next five years to boost production and increase oil recovery.
It also anticipates further development of the Forseti field, and to mature potentially exploration prospects in the licenses around the fields for drilling with a view to prove fresh resources for tieback through the existing infrastructure.
Other prospective development projects arePil/Bue and Bauge in the Norwegian Sea, and Garantiana and Brasse in the North Sea.
Jan Harald Solstad, CEO of Point Resources, said the company plans to invest more than NOK20 billion ($2.3 billion) on programs offshore Norway over the next five years.
03/30/2017
