MOL Acquires North Sea Licenses from Wintershall

Hungary’s MOL entered the North Sea region, acquiring assets from the Germany’s Wintershall for $375 million in order to enhance its offshore experience.

“This is a milestone in MOL’s history. The North Sea is the right region for us to make this strategic move. We are sending a clear message to our investors and our competitors that MOL Group is serious about expansion and is able to grow in new areas,” MOL Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi said in a note released on Friday.

The North Sea is a well-developed area and carries relatively low political risk compared with some of our other investments, which reduces MOL’s overall E&P “political risk” profile, and the United Kingdom provides a predictable and transparent regulatory environment.

MOL Group will acquire a total of 14 licenses. The portfolio includes non-operated equity stakes in the Broom field (29%) as well as the Catcher (20%), Cladhan (33.5%) and Scolty/Crathes (50%) developments. As part of the deal, MOL also acquired Wintershall’s equity share in existing infrastructure on the Sullom Voe Terminal and the Brent Pipeline System.

The purchase price of $ 375 million is subject to value adjustments at closing, which is expected in the first quarter of 2014.

“With the divestment of non-operated assets, we can concentrate on strengthening our competencies in exploration, field development and production activities on own-operated assets in the North Sea,” Rainer Seele, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Wintershall, said in note released by the BASF subsidiary on Friday.