Struggling North Sea oil firm Antrim says it may be forced to sell off its stake in the Causeway field as it continues to face financial problems.
The Canadian firm, which has stakes a number of North Sea fields, admitted that a selloff of its entire 35.5% stake in the field – which returned to action last month after an eight week shut-in.
The firm, which has also confirmed its final withdrawal from the Fionn field, warned it faced ‘signficant doubts’ about its ability to continue as a going concern.
“The company is reviewing its options, including possible further divestments including a possible divestment of all or a part of its Causeway asset, and has engaged Carlingford, a division of GFI Brokers Limited to advise and assist the company with this process,” said Antrim in an interim statement today.
“There can be no assurance that additional capital funding in the form of additional equity, debt, sale and/or farm-out arrangements will be available to the company.”
Antrim admitted it expected to breach some of the debt covenants it entered into as part of a £18million payment swap earlier this year, with output from its operations not enough to lift oil sale proceeds restrictions it faced.
“In addition, based on recent information from the operator the company now anticipates higher
than expected capital costs to complete the Causeway development for which the company is subject to requirements to place additional funds into a reserve account with the lender,” it warned.
“Failure to fund capital costs could result in the loss of the asset.”
Antrim lost more than £1.4million over the last three months on the commodity hedge fund it entered into, while its working capital deficiency widened to £9million compared to £6.7million at the end of 2012.
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