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LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Private-equity firm Kerogen
Capital is seeking offers for its North Sea business Zennor
Petroleum from a select number of bidders with the help of U.S.
investment bank Citi, industry sources said.
Kerogen has opened Zennor's books to potential buyers after
receiving approaches from some, one banking source said, adding
that Britain's Serica Energy could make an offer.
Serica was not immediately available for comment. Kerogen
and Zennor declined to comment. Citi had no immediate comment.
Two sources described the move as a "testing of waters" to
see how much appetite was in the market for Zennor. Bids can be
put forward up until the end of the year, one source said.
Zennor currently produces around 5,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day (boed), but has projects lined up to boost
its output by 2023 to around 35,000 boed.
Zennor mainly holds minority stakes in fields around the
Britannia and the Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) hubs,
focusing on subsea tie-backs rather running platforms which
require more staff.
ConocoPhillips sold its 58% of the Britannia area as
part of its British North Sea portfolio to private-equity backed
Chrysaor this year.
Chevron owns just over 32% as part of a bundle of
assets it agreed to sell to Delek Group's Ithaca Energy.
BP operates six of the seven ETAP fields.
Kerogen, an oil and gas focused private equity fund with
offices in Hong Kong and London and with around $2 billion under
management, bought Zennor in 2015. It has invested $300 million
in Zennor so far, according to Kerogen's website.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla. Editing by Jane Merriman)
