Company Structure26 Oct 2019 10:02
Far too many people (Seadoc, Drill or drop) get bent out of shape with the accounts of subsid. companies in the oil business.
It is absolutely standard to keep each asset, or group of assets, in a separate subsid. comp[any - look at any UK company in the N sea or Onshore and you'll find a dozen subsids.
there are two main reasons - firstly is the idea that you ring fence your liabilities - which works only up to a point. Secondly up until about 2010 many UK joint ventures had a pre-emption clause in the Joint Operating Agreement - say Alba wanted to sell their share of HH - UKOG could wait until they saw the selling price and then walk in and match it and take the asset.
This was a major disincentive to possible buyers as they did all the work to value the asset and then lost it at the last moment. Since the mid 00's the OGA and its predecessors have cracked down and will no longer accept pre-emption in new JOA's and frown on it's use in old ones.
One way of getting round pre-emption was to put the asset into a separate company (e.g Alba (HH)Ltd) perhaps with some other worthless dross. You could sell the SHARES in Alba (HH) without triggering the pre-emption clause in many cases.
Thus Igas from their 2018 accounts
Subsidiaries held by Company :
Dart Energy Pty Ltd Gas exploration, Australia C/O Pwc Level 23, 480 Queen Street, Brisbane QLD 4000
Island Gas Limited Oil exploration, evaluation, production and marketing, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Island Gas Operations Limited Electricity generation, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
IGas Energy Enterprise Limited Oil and gas exploration, , England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
IGas Exploration UK Limited Dormant, England Interpark House, 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Star Energy Group Limited Service company, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Star Energy Limited Service company, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Star Energy Weald Basin Limited Oil and gas processing, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Star Energy Oil and Gas Limited Dormant, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Subsidiaries held through subsidiaries :
Island Gas (Singleton) Limited Oil and gas production and marketing, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Dart Energy (Europe) Limited Investment holding, Scotland C/O Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) Llp, Level 6, 124-125 Princess Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4AD
Star Energy (East Midlands) Limited Dormant, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Dart Energy (East England) Limited Shale gas exploration, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
Dart Energy (West England) Limited Shale gas exploration, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
IGas Energy Development Limited Oil and gas development and production, England 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ
IGas Energy Production Limited Oil and gas exploration, development C/O Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) Llp,
and production, Scotland Level 6, 124-125 Princess Street, Edinburgh
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