Oil & Gas UK Welcomes BP North Sea Asset Sale

Oil & Gas UK Welcomes BP North Sea Asset Sale
News of BP plc's intended sale of its North Sea assets to Serica Energy plc has been welcomed by trade body Oil & Gas UK.

News of BP plc’s intended sale of its North Sea assets to Serica Energy plc has been welcomed by trade body Oil & Gas UK.

Deirdre Michie, chief executive of the industry trade association, said the announcement was good news for the UK’s offshore oil and gas sector and reinforced the ‘gathering strength of belief in the future of the UK North Sea’.

“We believe there are up to 20 billion barrels of oil and gas still to recover from Britain’s offshore regions,” Michie said in an organization statement. 

“The complexity of deals like the BP Serica one…is indicative of the effort the industry has to make to ensure that the right assets are in the right hands for further development and extending field life,” she added.

Michie said the BP deal would help bolster the industry’s efforts to maximize recovery of a ‘vital’ primary resource which helps to meet the country’s energy needs, secure jobs and generate wealth for the economy. 

The Oil & Gas UK Chief Executive also stated that deals such as this would act as catalysts for fresh investment, reinvigorating activity in both new and existing portfolios.

On November 21, Serica UK agreed to acquire BP plc’s interests in the Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields in the North Sea, in a deal which will see the transfer of approximately 110 BP staff to the company on completion.

The deal is expected to go through in mid-2018 and Serica currently has no plans to reduce staff numbers, according to a company spokesperson.

“We very much look forward to welcoming the extremely capable team that will be transferring to Serica from BP and combining skillsets and operational expertise,” said Tony Craven Walker, Serica’s executive chairman, in a company release on Tuesday.



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