Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Spirit Energy has agreed to sell its Norwegian E&P interests to Sval Energi and Equinor.
Under a $1.026-billion transaction, Sval will acquire all the operations and assets in Norway aside from Spirit’s interests in the Statfjord fields, which will go to Equinor.
Sval would gain shares of 45 licenses (six operated), seven producing offshore fields (two operated), and other development and exploration opportunities, raising its production to 60,000 boe/d in 2023.
This will be the company’s sixth Norwegian transaction since acquiring Solveig Gas in 2019. Subject to regulatory approvals, the deal should be completed in 2Q 2022.
Spirit’s Norwegian workforce will transfer to Sval, with a joint integration project to be formed for the handover process.
Equinor’s agreement covers all Spirit’s production licenses in the Statfjord area across the Norwegian and UK continental shelves, developed via the Statfjord A, B, and C production platforms.
The total consideration is $50 million, plus a contingent payment linked to commodity prices for the period from October 2021 to December 2022. Spirit’s share of production from the Statfjord area in 3Q 2021 was around 21,000 boe/d.
“Since production started in 1979, Statfjord has produced 5.1 Bboe and gross revenues of over NOK1.675 billion [$186.39 million],” said Camilla Salthe, senior vice president for late life assets in Equinor (Field Life eXtension, FLX).
“We still have high expectations for Statfjord and have recently launched a plan to extend the life of the field towards 2040.”
The Statfjord area covers the following licenses: Statfjord Unit (or Statfjord main field), Statfjord Øst Unit, Statfjord Nord (PL 037), Sygna Unit and Barnacle.
The Statfjord Unit development covers the Statfjord A, B and C concrete gravity base platforms. All the other fields, except for Barnacle, are subsea developments tied back to the main field platforms.
Chris Cox, CEO of Spirit Energy, said: “The sales agreements are in accordance with the strategy of Spirit Energy’s owners to reduce the carbon intensity of its portfolio.”
Spirit Energy plans to continue as an E&P business focused mainly on gas in the UK and in the Netherlands, he added: “In the UK and the Netherlands, our focus is on realizing value from our remaining reserves, safely and efficiently decommissioning our facilities and wells with minimum environmental impact, and pursuing energy transition opportunities in our assets…”
12/08/2021
