EnQuest to Increase Interest in Alba Oil Filed

EnQuest to Increase Interest in Alba Oil Filed

EnQuest PLC today announces that EnQuest’s wholly owned subsidiary, EnQuest Britain Limited has agreed with CIECO Energy (UK) Limited to acquire two of its affiliate companies which together hold a total of an 8% non-operated interest in the producing oil field Alba, in the UK Continental Shelf.

The agreement is subject to the normal regulatory consent. This acquisition adds reserves and producing barrels and further diversifies EnQuest’s asset base.

EBL will pay a base consideration of £18.75m in cash, plus a further deferred cash consideration of up to £0.5m contingent on certain project milestones. The acquired 8% interest had net remaining 2P reserves of 5.9 MMboe attributable as at the economic date.

The base consideration has an economic date at 1.1.2012 and is subject to working capital at the 1.1.2012 economic date, and tax and other adjustments with respect to the period from 1.1.2012 to the date of completion of the acquisition. During the year 2012, the Alba field had produced up to 6,400,000 barrels of oil by the end of September, the last available published production volumes from DECC.

The Alba field contains around 1 billion barrels of oil in place and has so far produced around 400 million barrels. It produces heavy oil from Eocene turbidite sandstones in block 16/26 in the UK North Sea and produces from the Alba Northern platform. Alba is operated by Chevron which has a 23.37% interest. Other partners are Mitsui, 13.3%, Endeavour, 25.68%, Statoil 17% and Centrica 12.65%.

The two CIECO Energy (UK) Limited affiliate companies which EBL is acquiring are CIECO Energy (UKCS) Limited and CIECO Energy (CNS) Limited. The reported profit before tax for these companies for the year ended 31 December 2011 were respectively £28m and £4.8m. The total assets of these companies as at 31 December 2011 were respectively £117.4m and £19.8m.

[mappress]
Press Release, January 23, 2013