French firm TotalEnergies (PAR: TTE) has sold its oil and gas fields West of Shetland to Prax Group.
The fields, known as the Greater Laggan area, include Laggan, Tormore, Glenlivet, Edradour and Glendronach fields as well the Shetland Gas Plant.
All employees will be moving to the new firm, which is headquartered in London.
TotalEnergies declined to confirm how many members of staff will be affected. However a separate Aberdeen consortium led by Ponticelli and Semco Maritime (PBS) employ a bulk of the workers on TotalEnergies portfolio of UK assets.
The Paris-listed company did not disclose the value of the deal.
The French firm’s senior VP Europe for exploration & production at TotalEnergies Jean-Luc Guiziou said it “remains committed” to the UK – it still retains stakes in the Elgin-Franklin, Culzean and Alwyn fields and its “integrated power and renewables portfolio”.
The deal is Prax’s second major North Sea move after it bought Hurricane Energy, operator of the Lancaster oilfield west of Shetland, in a £250million deal last year.
Prax was founded in 1999 by Sanjeev and Arani Kumar Kumar Soosaipillai.
© Supplied by DCTThe assets sold produce about 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day in
TotalEnergies’ share, made up of around 90% of gas.
“This transaction is in line with TotalEnergies’ strategy to continuously adapt its portfolio byvdivesting mature non-core assets,” said Guiziou. “TotalEnergies remains committed to the UK through both its upstream portfolio in the North Sea (Elgin-Franklin, Culzean and Alwyn fields) and its integrated power and renewables portfolio.”
The Paris-headquartered company has made several big offshore wind plays and is currently involved in a number of projects, includes the Seagreen offshore wind farm off the Angus coast.
TotalEnergies has been selling off stakes in its North Sea fields in recent years.
In 2022 it sold a 20% share in the Greater Laggan Area to Kistos (AIM.KIST) for $125m.
Background
The French company built the plant to handle gas from the Laggan and Tormore fields 78 miles West of Shetland, achieving first gas in 2016.
Laggan was discovered in 1986 and Tormore was discovered in 2007. In 2010 Total was given approval by the UK Government to develop both fields together in a project that cost £3.5bn.
The Glenlivet and Edradour fields were subsequently developed as subsea tiebacks to the Greater Laggan Area system.
In 2018, Total (as it was known then) announced the Glendronach discovery, which was billed as the largest oil and gas find WoS since Rosebank in 2004.
Who is Prax
Prax Group was founded in 1999 by Sanjeev and Arani Kumar Soosaipillai with the purchase of their first retail petrol station.
It now has over 1450 employees in 8 different locations across the world.
In 202o it struck a deal to buy the Lindsey oil refinery in North Killingholme, North Lincolnshire – also from TotalEnergies.
The refinery is one of six in the UK, and supplies fuels such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel into the downstream market by road and rail, and via a pipeline connected to the Greater London area.
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