Plans to develop the Blythe and Skipper North Sea licences are to be given extra time while the sale of one of the project’s partners goes through.
Independent Oil and Gas confirmed it had received a three month extension for the fields, taking its time limit to the end of March 2014.
The extension comes as 50% partners in the licences, ATP UK continues to be the subject of a bid for its assets following a filing for bankruptcy protection by its US parent firm.
New UK investors Alpha Petroleum is due to go to court next week as it looks to buy ATP Oil and Gas’ UK operations.
Independent Oil and Gas said in a statement it expected a further extension to the licence period to be confirmed once the hearing was completed.
“It is IOG’s understanding that longer extensions are expected to be granted once the sale of ATP Oil and Gas UK Ltd (“ATP UK”) has completed,” the company said.
The Blythe gas find, discovered in the Southern North Sea in 1996, is believed to contain up to 6million barrels of oil equivalent. Revenue from successfully developing that field would be used to fund the 26million barrel Skipper oil field, around 140km south-east of Shetland.
Last week it emerged IOG had secured new blocks around the Blythe development in the 27th UK offshore licencing round.
The company said it was looking at setting up a gas hub for the field after securing the extra blocks.
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