Wintershall Invests in North Sea, E.ON Puts its North Sea Assets Under Revision

Wintershall continues its expansion in the Norwegian North Sea, acquiring shares in oil and gas fields from Statoil for a cash consideration of USD 1.25 billion. 

‘BASF Group company Wintershall is continuing its growth course in Norway. By acquiring shares in the production fields Gjøa (5%) and Vega (24.5%)’ reads the note released by the German company. 

With the deal, the Kassel-based company increases by 50% its production in Norway to 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. 

“Last year we took over the operatorship of the Brage platform and commenced the self-operated production of oil and gas in Norway. We have always said that this is just the beginning for us and that we want to increasingly position ourselves as an operator of producing fields. I am therefore happy that the agreement with Statoil also envisages that Wintershall shall take over the operatorship of Vega,” said Bernd Schrimpf, Managing Director of Wintershall Norge.  

The transaction, which is financially retroactive to January 1, gives Wintershall the operatorship of the Vega production field. The transfer of operatorship from Statoil by the end of March 2015, conditional to government approval. 

Through the farm down, Statoil monetises on the Aasta Hansteen field development project.  

‘The transaction will enable Statoil to redeploy around USD 1.8 billion of capital expenditure for the period from the effective date until the end of 2020’ commented Statoil in a separate communiqué.

E.ON FOCUSES ON RENEWABLES 

Another German company, E.ON, announced on Sunday it is evaluating divestments of its activities in Italy, while putting its exploration and production businesses in the North Sea under strategic review.

‘E.ON will focus on renewables, distribution networks, and customer solutions and combine its conventional generation, global energy trading, and exploration and production businesses in a new, independent company (“New Company”), a majority of which will be spun off to E.ON SE shareholders’ the company wrote on Sunday.  

E.ON wants to increase technical innovation through a different business model, while creating an independent company to safeguard security of supply for the transformation.  

“We firmly believe that creating two independent companies, each with a distinct profile and mission, is the best way to secure our employees’ jobs. Our new strategy therefore isn’t a job-cutting program,” E.ON SE CEO Johannes Teyssen commented. 

In August, E.ON confirmed its 2014 EBITDA targets, despite a significant year-on-year decline.