Acquisition Agreements

CENTRICA PLC
7 October 1999


Centrica extends gas field portfolio

Centrica plc has today announced that it has entered into
two agreements to purchase further offshore gas assets in
the Southern North Sea through its subsidiary Centrica
Resources Limited.

An agreement has been entered into with Veba Oil and Gas
UK Limited to purchase its 4.6 per cent interest in the
Hewett area fields and the associated Bacton Phillips
terminal and a 10 per cent interest in the Thames area
field. This increases Centrica's Hewett holding to 13.1
per cent.

Agreement has also been reached with Total Oil Marine plc
to purchase its 15 per cent interest in the Victor field.
This increases Centrica's interest in the Victor field to
30 per cent.

Jake Ulrich, Managing Director of Centrica's Energy
Management Group said: 'The acquisitions are part of the
strategy of securing assets which provide a good fit with
our existing upstream equity and long term gas purchase
commitments.'

The aggregate cash consideration for the transactions is
£13.45 million. These agreements add an estimated 64.5
billion cubic feet to Centrica's reserves.

A number of smaller agreements with other parties have been
reached since April 1999 for a total consideration of
£12.5 million.  These have added an estimated 37 billion
cubic feet to our reserves.


Enquiries

James Donnan             Media Relations          01753 758443
Neville Barltrop         Media Relations          01753 758442
Chris Milburn            Investor Relations       01753 758113

Notes

1. The Hewett area fields include the satellite
developments of Dawn, Big Dotty, Little Dotty, Delilah
and Della.

2. The Thames area fields include the satellite
developments of Bure, Wensum, Yare and Deben.

3. In the last year Centrica has announced the
acquisition of the following assets.
-   October 1998 - Acquisition of PowerGen North Sea
   (PGNS), now renamed Centrica Resources Limited.
-   February 1999 - two agreements to purchase offshore
    gas assets in the Southern North Sea and East Irish Sea
    from Dana Petroleum plc and British Borneo Oil & Gas plc.

4. The smaller agreements reached since April 1999,
referred to above, are as follows:
-    April 1999 - agreement with LASMO North Sea plc to
     purchase its 8.5 per cent interest in the Hewett field.
-    May 1999 - agreement with Enterprise Oil plc to
     purchase its 2.5 per cent interest in the Ravenspurn
     North field and 3 per cent in the Babbage Field.
-    September 1999 - agreement with Eastern Natural Gas
     (Offshore) Limited to exchange Centrica's 3.94 per cent
     interest in the Johnston field for 3.25 per cent of
     Eastern's Ravenspurn North interest.