North Sea oil firm Waldorf Production has struck a deal to acquire MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas’ UK assets.
As part of the binding sale and purchase agreement, the Aberdeen-based firm will take on a 20% non-operated interest in the Catcher field.
That builds on the 20% stake in the field it acquired from Capricorn Energy, then Cairn Energy, last year – the £334 million deal also included a 29.5% stake in Kraken.
Waldorf has also secured non-operated interests of 50% in the Scolty and Crathes fields from MOL, as well as 21.83% in the Scott and 1.59% in the Telford licences.
Effective economically from January 1, the deal is expected to complete in the second half of the year.
The subsidiaries and assets being acquired will continue to be held by Waldorf after completion, the company said.
It also stressed that there are no implications for the Nordic Bond issued by Waldorf in October.
Erik Brodahl, chief executive of Waldorf said: “We are excited to acquire MOL’s UK portfolio and by so doing to double our stake in GCA.
“Pro forma for the transaction Waldorf’s 2021 production increases by c. 55% to c.34,000 boe per day and end 2021 2P reserves by almost a third from 51.6 mmboe to 66.5 mmboe.
“Waldorf continues to look for further growth opportunities building on its resilient non-operated North Sea production base in the near-term.”
Waldorf, which targets long life producing or near development assets, completed its acquisition of interests in the Catcher and Kraken fields from Capricorn in November after the deal was first announced in March 2021.
Capricorn said the fields were “falling into natural decline” and that the cash would help it to pursue its strategic goals.
Located abut 110 miles from Aberdeen, Catcher is operated by Harbour Energy with a 50% stake and is served by BW Offshore’s Catcher FPSO.
Waldorf is on something of an acquisitions spree and there were reports recently that the company is in exclusive talks to buy the assets of Dutch oil and gas company ONE-Dyas.
It is though the deal could exceed £750m.
Waldorf burst onto the North Sea scene in 2019 with the acquisition of Endeavour Energy UK from Houston-headquartered Endeavour International.
That deal gave it non-operated stakes in the producing Alba, Bacchus, Bittern and Enoch fields, as well as the Columbus development project.
