Scale Part Ii - Remember PMO's Experience in Play Here Tolmount & BP22 Oct 2021 00:40
As i said 2 birds one house brick - quote - but now HBR have the Fire power..
Premier Oil scraps Tolmount purchase as creditors approve BP deal
Exploratory firm Premier Oil has dropped plans to buy a 25 per cent stake in Korean-owned company Dana Petroleum’s Tolmount field in the North Sea.
The $191m (£152.6m) deal was agreed in January, alongside agreements to buy two fields from BP for a combined $625m.
However, the company today revealed that it had shelved the plan to buy the gas field, which it already owns a 50 per cent stake in, but did not comment on the reasons why. Like oil prices, the value of gas has plunged this year in line with the fall in global demand due to the coronavirus.
Premier also announced that its creditors had approved its acquisition of the BP fields after the oil giant agreed to reduce the prices for the Andrew Area and Shearwater deposits.
Under the amended terms cash payable upon completion has been reduced from the original price to $210m.
Korea’s state oil firm sells 25% stake in Tolmount project to ease liquidity strains
State-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) offloaded half of its stake in the Tolmount gas project in the British North Sea, retrieving up to $300 million to help shore up its finances.
Dana Petroleum, the British oil company wholly owned by the debt-ridden Korean utility, agreed to sell 25 percent out of its total 50 percent stake in Tolmount to the project operator Premier Oil, KNOC said in a press release.
Dana and Premier Oil had held equal stakes in the Tolmount gas project. Tolmount Main gas field, located 50 kilometers east of Britain’s central coast, is one of the biggest undeveloped gas discoveries in the Southern North Sea. Tolmount is estimated to hold 89 million barrels of recoverable gas resources and is slated to start production in late 2020. KNOC has been involved in the project ever since it acquired Dana in 2011.
With the stake sale, Premier Oil is expected to boost its operational efficiency and stability from the increased ownership, while Dana would provide much-needed liquidity to its heavily indebted parent company.
The sale is part of KNOC’s self-rescue efforts to turn around its troubled business. The company has set up an emergency task force, with the chief executive at the helm, to push cost-cutting measures and bolster its balance sheet.
KNOC saw its debt swell by 300 billion won ($255 million) to 1.16 trillion won in 2019 from a year earlier. Its annual losses over the past five years have averaged 1.8 trillion won.
When the stake sale is completed, Dana is expected to reduce its stake from 50 percent to 25 percent and receive up to US$300 million -- US$250 million in proceeds from the sale and US$50 million in settlement for investment already made. Premier Oil, which currently owns the operation right, will be able to enhance efficiency in project management by acquiring additional stakes. GLA GN