Serica Ups North Sea Stakes (Updates for Marubeni Deal)

Update November 6: Serica announced it has signed a deal to acquire Marubeni's respective 3.75% and 8.33% interests in the Bruce and Keith fields and associated infrastructure which -  once completed along with the BP, Total and BHP acquisitions - will result in Serica consolidating its ownership of the Bruce and Keith fields to 98% and 100% respectively. The latest deal differs from the three earlier ones as Serica will acquire the decommissioning obligations of Marubeni, but will receive in turn a cash consideration from Marubeni. No deal price was disclosed.

The November 5 article about BHP selling its interests to Serica, and the US waiver conditions fulfilment, follows below.

Serica Energy has increased its UK North Sea gas field interests, through a deal with BHP, and confirmed that its waiver from the US sanctions against Iran in respect of the Rhum field has been met in full.

UK-listed Serica said November 5 it signed a sale and purchase agreement with Australia’s BHP to acquire 16% and 31.83% stakes respectively in the Bruce and Keith fields, plus related infrastructure, effective January 1 2018.  The purchase price from BHP was not disclosed.

The UK independent also said that conditions of a license relating to the UK North Sea Rhum field, issued by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) to Serica and BP in respect of the 50% interest in that field held by IOC subsidiary of Iran’s state NIOC, “have now been met in full”. Together with previously announced purchases from BP and Total, Serica will own 94.25% of the Bruce field, 91.67% of the Keith field, and 50% of the Rhum field and become operator of all fields, once all three deals (including with BHP) are completed – now expected to occur November 30 2018.  Mitch Flegg, Serica’s CEO, thanked all involved: “Serica looks forward now to completing the transactions with BP, Total and BHP and to working with suppliers and service companies to develop these reserves to their full potential."

The US waiver news from Serica came on the same day that the US Treasury Dept said it has reimposed sanctions on Iran, describing it as the US' "largest ever single-day action targeting the Iranian regime." It will hit oil shipments, banking, other shipping, and the state airline Iran Air. Consultancy Rystad Energy said mid-October it expects the US call on the world to boycott Iranian oil to lead, in a base case, to a loss of 877,000 b/d exports and in a severe case to a loss of 1.213mn b/d exports next year – in both cases from a ‘pre-sanctions’ Iran export figure of 2.149mn b/d in the nine months to February 2018.