LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. energy groupConocoPhillips has agreed to sell its oil and gas assetsin the British North Sea to private equity-backed Chrysaor for$2.675 billion, Conoco said on Thursday.
Britain's ageing North Sea has undergone a majortransformation in recent years as long-standing producers havesold assets to smaller players such as Chrysaor that say theycan squeeze more money out of fields due to nimbler operations.
The Conoco package produced 72,000 barrels of oil equivalentper day (boed) last year, the U.S. company said.
Chrysaor says on its website its average production between2018 and 2020 was expected to be 120,000-130,000 boed. After theConoco deal, Chrysaor will be the biggest producer in theBritish North Sea.
On Thursday, Chrysaor said the deal, which will be backdatedto start in January last year and which is subject to regulatoryapproval, would bring it up to 177,000 boed pro forma in 2018and 185,000 boed in 2019. It did not immediately reply to arequest to clarify its production numbers.
Chrysaor will also pay unspecified interest in the dealwhich is not included in the $2.675 billion, Conoco said.
The sale is expected to close in the second half of theyear.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Chrysaor and Conoco wereclose to sealing the deal, according to sources, who had put thevalue of the assets at up to $2.8 billion.
BMO Capital Markets and Jefferies are acting for Chrysaor inrelation to the Conoco assets, the sources said.
Energy and chemicals firm Ineos, privately owned by Britishbillionaire Jim Ratcliffe, had previously abandoned exclusivetalks with the U.S. company over the fields, including a 7.5percent stake in the Clair project west of the Shetland Islands,whose other owners are BP, Shell and Chevron.
Another bidder was energy-focussed private equity groupHitecVision.(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Mark Potter)