BP boosts North Sea operations via asset swap with BG

05 December 2008

UK energy majors BP and BG Group have planned an exchange of North Sea assets, which would make BP a major operator in southern North Sea and facilitate increased investment in the UKCS.

Under the deal, BP will acquire BG Group's interest in a number of Southern North Sea fields - the BP-operated Amethyst, Whittle and Wollaston fields and all of BG Group's interests in the Easington Catchment Area (ECA) fields, including Mercury, Neptune, Minerva, Apollo and Artemis.

These include BG's 24.2 per cent interest in the BP-operated Amethyst field and all their interests in the Easington Catchment Area (ECA) fields including 73.3 per cent interest in the Mercury field, 79 per cent interest in the Neptune field, 65 per cent interest in Minerva, Apollo and Artemis fields, and their 30.8 per cent interest in the BP-operated Whittle and Wollaston fields.

BG Group, in turn, will acquire BP's interests in three Central North Sea fields - the BP-operated Everest and Lomond fields, and the BG-operated Armada field. BG Group has also agreed to acquire 32 per cent of the Chevron-operated Erskine field from BP.

These include BP's interest and operatorship in the Everest (21.1 per cent) and Lomond (22.2 per cent) fields, plus BP's 18.2 per cent interest in the BG-operated Armada field and 32 per cent of the Chevron-operated Erskine field (BP will retain 18 per cent equity in Erskine).

The companies have valued the assets to be exchanged at approximately £304 million. Production volume exchanged in this deal is around 17,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.