North Sea operator Spirit Energy has bared an “exceptional loss” relating to the sale of its Norwegian business in 2022.
At the end of May last year, the company completed the offload of its full portfolio of oil and gas assets offshore Norway to Sval Energi, and its interests in the Statfjord field to Equinor.
The sale closed for a headline consideration of around £800 million, for a loss of £183m for the period, Spirit reported in its company accounts.
Centrica, owner of 69% of Spirit, said at the time that the transaction was enacted in order to focus on UK gas production and energy transition projects.
It also said in 2021 that the UK arm of Spirit would continue operating in “run-off” mode, with no further investment in oil and gas production and a consultation on redundancies in Aberdeen launched last year.
The operator had around 350 employees in Aberdeen and around 800 in the UK in 2020, though it’s expected that number may have reduced since the sale of the Norwegian arm.
Posting it’s 2022 results on Companies House, Spirit reported profits before tax of £624m, reversing losses of £574 in 2021, the result of “higher commodity prices”.
Group revenue increased by £942m to over £2 billion, up from £1.3bn in the previous period.
Spirit’s key asset is a 61.2% non-operated stake in Cygnus, one of the largest gas fields in the UK, which is operated by Neptune Energy.
Elsewhere it operates the Morecambe Bay Hub in the Irish Sea and has operated holdings in a number of subsea tie-back fields and a normally unmanned installation in the North Sea.
The firm recently started decommissioning the Chestnut field, which was in operation since 2008.
Chestnut’s FPSO, the Hummingbird Spirit, was towed to the Cromarty Firth and renamed “Excalibur” ahead of heading back to the North Sea, this time to serve the Ping Petroleum Avalon field.
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