MANY parties are interested in acquiring the whole of Oilexco North Sea (ONS) and its assets, according to administrators at Ernst and Young (E&Y).
Roy Bailey, one of four joint administrators appointed on January 7, said yesterday: “We have received notable expressions of interest for the whole of Oilexco North Sea from various parties and will be moving forward with a handful of selected offers.
“The next stage will involve additional due diligence and contractual negotiations, which we would aim to conclude by the middle of March. We would hope to complete a sale as quickly as possible thereafter.”
The offers follow a closing date for bids on January 30.
The firm, whose Canadian parent Oilexco is listed in Toronto and London, operates the Brenda, Nicol and Shelley fields in the UK North Sea, and has several other discoveries to its credit.
It went into administration after its bankers declined to give it additional funds to continue its planned drilling and development programme.
E&Y was unable to disclose the names of ONS bidders.