UK: Valiant Farms Out Isabella to Maersk

Valiant Petroleum has announced today that its subsidiary, Valiant Causeway, will farm out its stake in the Isabella gas field in the U.K Central North Sea to Maersk Oil U.K.

Isabella, which is held across three blocks and under one licence, the P1820 licence, is a highly prospective gas condensate prospect. It is located on one of the largest undrilled fault blocks in with prospectivity across multiple geological horizons, Valiant said today.

Under the terms of the farm out, Maersk will gain access to the highly prospective prospect. In return, Maersk will partially carry Valiant's well costs and will also refund certain historical costs associated with Valiant's participation in the licence.

Once this is completed, Maersk will take a 30 per cent overall stake in the licence. Valiant's stake will be reduced from 50 per cent to 20 per cent.

Apache North Sea will remain as operator of the licence with a 30 percent stake.

The agreement remains subject to the approval of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.