Lime Petroleum Completes Yme Field Stake Buy
Rex International’s Norwegian subsidiary Lime Petroleum has completed the acquisition of a stake in Repsol’s Yme field offshore Norway.
Lime Petroleum entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Kufpec Norway in August for the acquisition of a 10 percent interest in the field for a post-tax consideration of $68 million.
According to the company, the completion was concluded on December 23 with an initial payment of $55 million. Deferred payment of the balance, including the settlement costs, will be paid in 30 working days after the completion.
Lime said that, as part of the settlement, ABG Sundal Collier was engaged to raise around $25.5 million from the tap mechanism in the bond set up in June. The tap will be raised during January 2023, with ABG Sundal Collier as the underwriter. After the tap, the total bond will be $122 million.
In the initial announcement this summer, Rex stated that the production from the Yme field will contribute to its target of reaching a production of 20,000 bpd across various geographies.
As for the Yme field, it was discovered in 1987 located in Block 9/2 and 9/5 in the Egersund Basin, some 130 kilometers from the Norwegian coastline.
However, production did not start until 1996. In 2001, production stopped because the operation of the field was no longer regarded as profitable. Repsol took over the project in 2015, submitted a revised PDO for the field in near the end of 2017 which was approved in March 2018.
The new development project entailed the engineering, procurement, and installation of a new wellhead module on top of the existing facilities, the modifications and upgrading of the Maersk Inspirer mobile offshore drilling and production unit prior to installation in the field and subsequent hook-up to existing wells in and installations on the seabed offshore.
After years of delays, the Yme field started producing again in October 2021, but had been shut down several times since.
The first shutdown occurred in November 2021, less than a month after the first oil, to “assess the high oil in water readings,” while the second one took place in May 2022. In September, Repsol announced it had been forced once again to temporarily shut down the field due to technical issues.
To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com
Published at Mon, 26 Dec 2022 06:56:52 -0800
