The sale will include the company's stakes in Andrew, Mariner and Culzean
JX Nippon to sell UK North Sea assets. (Credit: Kristina Kasputienė from Pixabay.)
Japanese oil and gas exploration firm JX Nippon is reportedly planning to divest its oil and gas assets in the UK North Sea for a total consideration of $1.5bn.
The sale will include the company’s stakes in Andrew, Mariner and Culzean fields, where it is a partner to BP, Equinor and Total, respectively, five banking sources told Reuters.
The Culzean gas field and the Mariner oil field entered into production in 2019.
Located approximately 150km east of the Shetland Islands, the Mariner oil field is primarily in Block 9/11a in the northern UK North Sea.
The field is estimated to produce more than 300 million barrels of oil over the next three decades.
With 300m barrels of reserves, the Culzean field has the potential to address 5% of Britain’s gas needs alone, according to Total.
JX Nippon, whose parent company is ENEOS Holdings, entered the basin in 2002 and acquired additional fields, along with obtaining exploration licences, in the later years.
For the transaction, JX Nippon has contracted Bank of America and Kirk Lovegrove as advisers for the sale of its UK North Sea assets, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The company is currently in early-stage discussions and no final agreements have been reached. The assets are estimated to value $2bn, reported the publication.
The sale marks the latest development in the North Sea, where oil majors are selling their assets to private firms, which claim to be better positioned to exploit remaining reserves in the aging basin.
JX Nippon also holds stakes in oil and gas fields including Kinnoull and Brae.
According to its website, the company has eight producing oil and gas field assets in the UK North Sea.