Japanese trading house Marubeni has confirmed the sale of its North Sea business to Ithaca Energy.
In a statement, the Tokyo-headquartered firm said it will transfer all shares of its North Sea subsidiary, Marubeni North Sea Limited, to Ithaca.
It was reported earlier this year that Ithaca had agreed to buy the company for $1billion, but Ithaca said at the time that it “does not comment on market speculation”.
Marubeni’s note gave an overview of Ithaca Energy’s portfolio, but did not disclose the value of the sale.
Ithaca has been approached for further comment.
In January, it emerged that 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.
The disposal follows 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 in August 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.
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