Ithaca has agreed to acquire the North Sea assets of Marubeni in a $1billion deal, according to a news report.
The oil and gas firm said it “does not comment on market speculation”, when contacted about the report from the Reuters news agency.
It was revealed in January that Tokyo-based Marubeni was seeking to sell its 41.03% stake in the Montrose Area in the North Sea operated by Repsol Sinopec Resources UK.
Montrose is a production hub for several fields including its namesake, Arbroath, Arkwright, Brechin, Cayley, Godwin and Shaw.
Reuters cited unnamed sources in its report.
In January, Bloomberg reported that Marubeni was working with Jefferies Financial Group on the sale of the Montrose stake.
A disposal would follow the retreat of other Japanese firms from the basin such as Idemitsu Kosan and Itochu Corp.
It also joins JX Nippon which is reportedly seeking $1.5billion for its stakes in the Mariner and Culzean fields, among the newest large oil and gas fields in the sector operated by Equinor and TotalEnergies, respectively.
Ithaca announced last month that it had refinanced a $1.2bn reserve based lending facility and placed a $625m bond to “pursue our growth ambitions focus on our production and our projects”.
The company produced around 56,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half of 2021.
The Montrose platform lies around 130 miles east of Aberdeen in the central North Sea.