One of the companies behind the controversial Cambo and Rosebank oil fields, located west of Scotland, is eyeing a deal with Italy’s Eni which could see the oil major take a nearly 40% stake in it.
Ithaca Energy said the deal, which would also see it take over Eni’s UK operations, would make it the second largest independent operator in the UK.
The agreement would see Ithaca gain assets that produce around 40,000 to 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Eni. In return Eni would get a 38%-39% stake in Ithaca.
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That would push Ithaca’s overall production to more than 100,000 barrels per day, making it the second biggest player in the country with stakes in six of the UK continental shelf’s 10 biggest oil and gas fields.
Ithaca and Eni have reached an exclusivity agreement, which means the two parties now have a month to see if they want to go ahead.
“Eni has granted Ithaca Energy exclusivity in respect of the assets, the subject of the potential combination, for a period of four weeks from the date of this announcement,” Ithaca said.
Ithaca owns a majority of the Cambo site, and bought a 20% stake in Rosebank in 2022.
Last September it took the final decision alongside Norway’s Equinor to invest 3.8 billion US dollars (£3 billion) to develop Rosebank. It has not yet taken a final decision over Cambo.
The decision to go ahead with Rosebank has proved controversial, with opponents pointing towards the International Energy Agency’s roadmap for the world to reach its climate ambitions.
This, the IEA said, would require that no new oil and gas projects are approved.
Critics say Rosebank can produce around 500 million barrels of oil, which one Conservative MP likened to running 56 coal-fired power plants for a whole year.
Ithaca said on Wednesday that it produced 70,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day last year. Around a third of that was gas and two-thirds liquids.
It said production will fall to between 56,000 and 61,000 in 2024, in part because it is delaying investment due to the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
