Energy firm Centrica is reportedly involved in talks with Engie over the future of some of the French company’s oil and gas assets.
Centrica – whose UK North Sea exploration and production (E&P) business produces nearly 66,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day – and Engie, which opened new North Sea headquarters in Aberdeen in 2014 and has about 200 UK-based staff in offices in the Granite City and London, both declined to comment on the French media report yesterday.
Sources on this side of the English Channel poured cold water on the “speculation”, saying there was no truth in it.
Engie, previously GDF Suez, has put all its oil and gas assets under “strategic review” as it turns its focus on low-carbon activities.
A spokeswoman for the Paris-based firm insisted last week there were currently no “specific” plans for an oil and gas exit.
But Engie, whose UK E&P arm is operator of the Cygnus and Juliet gas fields in the southern North Sea and also has interests in the central North Sea and west of Shetland, is reportedly planning to sell assets worth nearly £12billion to cut its £21.6billion debt as it focuses on regulated activities not exposed to commodity prices.
Centrica has the biggest stake in the Cygnus development, with a shareholding of nearly 50%.
The company produces oil and gas from both operated and non-operated fields in the UK North Sea and its upstream arm is headquartered in Aberdeen.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s Dong Energy said yesterday it was to cut its oil and gas workforce by more than one-third by the end of the March.
About 280 jobs are expected to be axed from among 700 people employed in the division.
Dong employs 6,700 across its global operations, which are increasingly focused on wind power generation. The company has an Aberdeen office, employing a handful of people, in Berry Street.
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