Offshore staff
LONDON -- BP and BG Group have agreed to exchange a package of North Sea assets.
BP has agreed to acquire BG Group's interests in a number of southern North Sea fields: the BP-operated Amethyst, Whittle, and Wollaston fields, and all of BG Group's interests in the Easington Catchment Area (ECA) fields including Mercury, Neptune, Minerva, Apollo, and Artemis.
BG Group has agreed to acquire BP's interests in three central North Sea fields: the BP-operated Everest and Lomond fields, and the BG-operated Armada field. BG Group has also agreed to acquire 32% of the Chevron-operated Erskine field from BP.
The respective equity interests have been agreed to be exchanged without any cash payment.
Upon completion of the deal, around 90 BP offshore staff currently working on the Everest and Lomond installations will transfer to BG under TUPE regulations (Transfer of Undertakings - Protection of Employment). There is no offshore staff involved in the assets transferring from BG Group to BP as BP already operates the assets involved. A small number of onshore positions in BP are impacted by the asset transfer, but BP has agreed to redeploy locally within BP all of the individuals involved.
The deal is subject to government, regulatory, and co-venturer approvals and completion is expected in 2Q 2009.
12/03/2008
