Re Investment in Oil Field
Petrofac Limited
17 May 2006
PETROFAC LIMITED
("Petrofac")
INVESTMENT IN UK NORTH SEA INTEREST
Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, announces
that its Resources division has increased its interest in Block 9/28a Part B
(containing the Crawford Field, recently known as Cragganmore) from 5.58% to 29%
and become the operator of the field.
Petrofac Resources has acquired the 55.3% operated interest of Tuscan Energy
(Cragganmore) Limited (Tuscan) and agreed to sell, on the same terms and
conditions, part of the acquired interest to the other existing partners,
Fairfield Acer Limited (Fairfield) and Stratic Energy (UK) Ltd (Stratic). Upon
completion, Petrofac will have a 29% interest in the field, Fairfield will have
52% and Stratic 19%.
Following completion of the sale to Fairfield and Stratic, the net consideration
paid for the acquisition of Petrofac's additional interest will amount to
approximately US$1 million. Petrofac has assumed liability for the contingent
payments due under Tuscan's original purchase agreement, comprising a payment
should a field development plan be approved and subsequent payments should
certain production levels in the field be achieved. Following satisfaction of
the conditions precedent relating to the sale to Fairfield and Stratic and
completion thereof, Petrofac's share of these contingent payments will amount to
up to US$8.5 million.
Ayman Asfari, Petrofac Group Chief Executive, commented:
"With these changes to the field ownership and our role as operator, we believe
we are in a better position to assess the viability of this previously abandoned
asset."
Ends
For further information, please contact:
Petrofac Limited +44 (0) 20 7811 4900
Ayman Asfari, Group Chief Executive
Keith Roberts, Chief Financial Officer
Robin Caiger, Head of Investor Relations
Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial +44 (0) 20 7861 3232
Ben Woodford
Geoff Callow
Notes to Editors
The Crawford Field, which has been known recently as Cragganmore, was discovered
by well 9/28-2 drilled by Hamilton Brothers in 1975 and was subsequently
appraised and developed in the late 1980s, producing approximately 4 million
barrels of 30-35degreesAPI oil via a floating production vessel in the period
1989 to 1990. Field performance fell below expectation and the field was
abandoned in the low oil price environment that existed in 1990.
Fairfield is carrying out work on the subsurface on behalf of the joint venture.
Using a modern re-processed 3D seismic study, Fairfield currently estimates that
the initial oil in place volume is approximately 190 million barrels for the
field, of which approximately 140 million barrels (representing the largest
target volume for development) are contained within the northern and eastern
area of the field. Additional appraisal potential is expected in the untested
horizons
Current plans, which are at an early stage, assume that the field will be
developed in phases using modern drilling and completion techniques to reduce
risk with wells tied back to one of two nearby production facilities.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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