Norway’s Statoil has taken up a 11.93% stake in Swedish oil exploration and production firm Lundin Petroleum.
Statoil acquired over 37 million shares at a total purchase price of SEK 4.6bn ($539.4m) and says the acquisition will increase the company’s exposure to core assets on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).
Eldar Sætre, president and CEO of Statoil, commented: “We consider this a long term shareholding. The Norwegian Continental Shelf is the backbone of Statoil’s business, and this transaction indirectly strengthens our total share of the value creation from core, high value assets on the NCS.”
Statoil said the move increases its exposure to core NCS field development projects such as Johan Sverdrup and Edvard Grieg at attractive values. It did not reveal if it would look to increase the stake in future but did say it is supportive of Lundin’s management and strategy and is continuously looking to enhance value creation.
