Faroe Buys 50% Stake in Lowlander Ahead of Development

UK and Norway-focused Faroe Petroleum reported Thursday that it has bought the remaining 50-percent interest in the Lowlander oil discovery in the UK zone of the central North Sea. The acquisition means that Faroe now owns the undeveloped oilfield in its entirety.

Faroe bought the 50-percent stake in Lowlander, located on block 14/20c in UK license P.324, from North Sea Ventures. It had previously bought its initial 50-percent interest in the discovery from Talisman Sinopec in February this year.

Faroe plans to develop Lowlander together with the neighboring Perth field (in which it has a 34.6-percent staek) as a joint project that will share the same production facilities – so benefiting from economies of scale. Both fields have been fully appraised, with a total of nine wells drilled, and are estimated to contain oil in place of 220 million barrels (including 62 million barrels that are estimated to be recoverable).

Faroe also stated that there is potential for the production facilities at the joint field development could serve as a hub for a number of other accumulations discovered in the area.

Faroe Chief Executive Graham Stewart commented in a company statement:

"Faroe is building an exciting core area around Perth and Lowlander in the central North Sea and work is underway together with our Perth partners to progress the potential high value Perth/Lowlander joint development project.
 
"In Norway, Faroe is now drilling the second well in its current six-well exploration campaign.  This is an exciting time for Faroe having recently announced a significant discovery on the first of these wells, Snilehorn.  With an extensive, focused portfolio of assets and material equity stakes spanning the prolific North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea in Norway, we have the real potential to generate considerable shareholder value in the near term."