Harbour Energy, one of the biggest independent oil and gas producers in the UK North Sea, said on Friday it would buy all the subsidiaries of Waldorf Energy Partners Ltd and Waldorf Production Ltd substantially, in the latest merger announcement in Britain’s oil and gas province.
Harbour Energy will pay $170 million for the acquisition of the companies that are currently in administration in a deal that is immediately materially accretive to Harbour’s free cash flow and will support the competitiveness, resilience, and longevity of Harbour’s UK business.
Harbour Energy will fund the payment through readily available sources of liquidity.
The deal will add oil-weighted production of about 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and increase Harbour’s interest in its operated Catcher field to 90%, up from 50%, and improve the financial stability of the joint venture partnership.
Through the Waldorf acquisition, Harbour Energy will also gain access to a new production base in the Northern North Sea with the addition of a 29.5% non-operated interest in the Kraken oilfield.
“This transaction is an important step for Harbour in the UK North Sea, building on the action we’ve already taken to sustain our position in the basin given the ongoing fiscal and regulatory challenges,” said Scott Barr, Managing Director of Harbour’s UK Business Unit.
Last week Harbour Energy said it would cut another 100 jobs as part of a restructuring driven by lower commodity prices and the extended windfall tax, which the UK government didn’t change in its latest budget.
Harbour Energy is also the latest operator in the UK to announce acquisitions, following the launch of the 50/50 joint venture of Shell and Equinor which combined their offshore UK oil and gas operations in a new company, Adura. Earlier this week, French supermajor TotalEnergies said it would merge its upstream UK business with NEO NEXT to create the biggest independent oil and gas producer in Britain, NEO NEXT+.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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