Waldorf enters agreement to buy North Sea upstream firm Alpha Petroleum

Waldorf Production has struck an undisclosed deal to takeover North Sea oil and gas firm Alpha Petroleum Resources.

The binding sale and purchase agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of private equity firm Shorelight Partners includes a 100% working interest in the Cheviot field, east of Shetland.

Surrey-based Alpha Petroleum’s assets also include an operated interest in Helvellyn, Tors and Wenlock, three late life gas fields in the Southern North Sea.

Cheviot is one of the largest undeveloped fields in the UK North Sea, with estimated contingent resources of 55 million barrels (MMbbls) of oil and 120 billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas.

The acquisition by Waldorf Production is expected to pave a way for bringing the field online after years of stalls and delays.

Alpha Petroleum, which entered the North Sea in 2001, entered into a deal with vessel owner Teeky in 2018 for the use of the Petrojarl Varg FPSO.

But it collapsed after Teekay said the oil company had failed to satisfy key conditions of the agreement.

First oil had previously been on the slate for the second quarter of last year.

There are no implications for the Nordic Bond issued by Waldorf Production on October 1, 2021.

Erik Brodahl, chief executive of Waldorf Production said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Alpha team and look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to Waldorf. Cheviot provides a valuable development opportunity to supplement our existing production portfolio and will increase our contribution to the UK’s much-needed energy security.”

Cheviot is a redevelopment of the Emerald field, which was discovered in 1975 and initially developed in the mid-1990’s.

But it was abandoned early when only 8% of the original oil in place had been produced.

In 2003, Alpha was awarded the licence for Cheviot in the 21st Licence Round.

Waldorf

Waldorf arrived onto the North Sea scene in 2019 with the acquisition of Endeavour Energy UK from Houston-headquartered Endeavour International.

With that Waldorf took on non-operated stakes in the producing Alba, Bacchus, Bittern and Enoch fields and the Columbus development project.

The company, incorporated in the UK in August 2019, is managed and owned by an experienced team led by Jon Skabo and Mr Brodahl, who founded the company with support from a consortium of investors.

Mr Brodahl is a Norwegian entrepreneur with 25 years’ experience in oil and gas private equity and business development.

Earlier this year Waldorf struck a deal to acquire MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas’ UK assets, including a 20% non-operated interest in the Catcher field.

The deal is expected to complete in the second half of the year.

It 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.