North Sea producer Marathon Oil is to ramp up efforts to sell its assets on the UK Continental Shelf after opening a data room for prospective customers.
The company announced last year it was looking to exit the North Sea, where it is operator of the North, Central, West and South Brae fields, along with stakes in the East and Braemar fields, the Sage pipeline and Foinaven project west of Shetland.
It has also put up its interests in the Norwegian continental shelf, where it has 10 licences, up for sale as it looks to focus on the shale gas boom in the USA.
Marathon chief executive Lee Tillman confirmed the company was progressing its plans to sell off the fields, with a data room having been open ahead of bids being made.
“The marketing of our United Kingdom and Norway North Sea businesses is a continuation of our portfolio optimization to simplify and concentrate our portfolio toward higher margin and higher growth opportunities,” he said.
“This effort is progressing on plan with the data room open and bids expected in the second quarter.”
The announcement that Marathon was putting its North Sea operations up for sale sparked concern for more than 1000 workers employed by the company in the region.
The company employs more than 200 onshore staff in Aberdeen, with a further 172 offshore and upwards of 400 contractors in the UKCS.
Progress on the data room comes as the company announced plans for an increased share repurchase scheme, with a further £300million of shares set to be bought back by the firm as it refocuses onto its US onshore operations.
“Our share repurchase program underscores Marathon Oil’s commitment to capital discipline and creating long-term value for our shareholders,” said Mr Tillman.
“Since September 2013, the Company has completed a two-phased repurchase of $1 billion of the Company’s common stock representing 29 million shares. Now Marathon Oil is initiating an additional $500 million share repurchase, after which we will have $1.5 billion remaining on the board authorized share repurchase program.”
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