* Blackstone, Blue Water offer all, or parts, of Siccar
Point
* Sale of parts of portfolio more likely - sources
* Sources value portfolio at up to $3 bln
By Shadia Nasralla and Ron Bousso
LONDON, Oct 31(Reuters) - Bids for North Sea oil and gas
firm Siccar Point, backed by private equity groups Blackstone
and Blue Water Energy, are due on Nov. 7 and are likely
to target specific assets rather than the whole company, four
industry sources said.
The list of bidders is expected to include EIG-Harbour
Energy backed Chrysaor that is currently the largest producer in
the North Sea, private equity fund HitecVision, Royal Dutch
Shell, BP , Equinor, Suncor, CNOOC
and Repsol, the sources said.
One source valued the whole company at up to $3 billion and
another source said it was unlikely to fetch more than $2
billion.
The sale process comes as some private equity-backed North
Sea companies largely abandon earlier plans to publicly list
amid a sluggish recovery in oil prices.
Siccar Point is wooing potential buyers of its assets with
just under 600 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of
resources and reserves, including more oil than gas, a sale
document showed.
Such yet-to-be-exploited barrels can be attractive to some
of the private-equity backed firms that have bought aging North
Sea assets from oil majors in recent years and are looking for
future growth ahead of a potential stock market listing or sale.
Siccar Point sees its output reaching about 80,000 barrels
of oil equivalent per day (boed) by about 2027 from currently
just over 10,000 boed. Beyond this, output will mainly be
boosted by the Cambo development.
Among other smaller stakes, Siccar Point holds 70% in Cambo
field alongside Shell, 11.8% in the BP-operated Shiehallion
field and 20% and 9%, respectively, in Equinor-operated Rosebank
and Mariner fields.
The portfolio offers production and exploration
opportunties, including 1.4 billion boe in yet-to-be drilled
prospects and leads in the West of Shetlands area, where majors
like BP, Shell and Equinor are boosting North Sea production.
Siccar Point would offer a potential buyer $2 billion in
so-called tax losses in Britain, which would "shelter profits
with no tax payments expected until (the) late 2020s," according
to the sale document sent to potential buyers.
The sellers have said in sales documents they would prefer
to sell all of Siccar Point, but would consider bids for
separate packages of assets. The document offered five separate
packages to bidders.
Rothschild and Lambert Energy are advising Siccar Point on
the sale.
HitecVision, Blackstone, EIG/Harbour, Chrysaor, Equinor, BP,
Shell, Rothschild and Lambert declined to comment. Suncor and
CNOOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, editing by Deepa Babington)
BP (BP.)
