Swiss-headquartered chemical specialist INEOS has announced it will acquire all of the UK North Sea gas fields owned by German-based oil and gas firm DEA Group.
INEOS said that it “moved fast to acquire these high quality, low risk assets” which will form a new London-based division of the company, INEOS Upstream, which includes the acquired platforms, infrastructure and staff.
The North Sea fields are positioned close to INEOS assets in the North East and Scotland with the largest of them, Breagh and Clipper South, located in the Southern North Sea.
Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS chairman, commented “We are pleased to acquire a strong portfolio of natural gas assets and bring on board a highly successful and experienced North Sea industry team. INEOS has been very open about its intention to make strategic investments in the North Sea and this acquisition is our first step in fulfilling this goal. It will also help our UK petrochemical assets to have ongoing access to competitive energy.”
INEOS is now evaluating additional opportunities in the offshore area, seeing this initial acquisition as a starting point for INEOS Upstream. The company also owns a number of Shale gas licences in England and Scotland and is investing a further $1bn in a project to bring US Shale gas to the UK and to Norway.
