Total, Statoil Mop up Cobalt Assets

Total and Statoil - both big spenders in the recent sale of US Gulf oil and gas leases - have acquired further oil-focused acreage in the US Gulf.

The two said April 11 they have bought Cobalt International Energy’s 60% operated interest in the North Platte oil discovery for an aggregate price of $339mn, having jointly made the winning bid for the asset in a bankruptcy auction of Cobalt assets held March 2018. Statoil now owns a 40% non-operated North Platte stake, while Total has increased its existing 40% interest to 60% and took on operatorship.

In addition to that 20% stake, Total said it also acquired 20% in the Chevron-operated Anchor oil discovery (increasing its stake to 32.5%), plus 13 offshore exploration blocks that will be operated by Total. All were bought in the same Cobalt auction for some $300mn, it said (implying a $39mn price for Statoil’s 40% North Platte stake). The deals were approved by the US Bankruptcy Court April 5.

US firm W&T Offshore Inc picked up Cobalt's 9.375% stake in the Anadarko-operated Heidelberg oil producing field, also in the US Gulf, with a bid of $31.1mn.

Cobalt filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2017, just over a year after Angolan state Sonangol cancelled its $1.75bn deal agreed 2015 to buy Cobalt’s stakes in two oil and gas-rich blocks offshore Angola. A few weeks later that December, the two firms reached a settlement whereby Sonangol would pay cash-strapped Cobalt only $500mn for them.