By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 20 -- UK oil and gas exploration and production companies Perenco and Neal & Massy Energy are to acquire three oil fields off Trinidad and Tobago's southeast coast from BP Trinidad & Tobago LLC (BPTT) for $299 million, BPTT said in a statement.
The fields—Teak, Samaan, and Poui (TSP) —produce about 20,500 b/d of oil, or 5% of BPTT's total production of oil and gas. The purchase includes BPTT's three longest-producing fields, the associated offshore infrastructure—14 platforms—and E&P licenses.
BPTT's Galeota terminal is not part of this sale; the new owners of TSP will pay BPTT a fee for processing and handling of TSP liquids.
BPTT will retain deep E&P rights across the TSP acreage, the statement said. The depth limit established by BPTT, which varies across the acreage, is about 3,810 m below the seabed.
BPTT expects to complete the transaction in September, depending on whether Repsol YPF SA, a BPTT shareholder, exercises its preemption right to purchase the TSP assets, the statement said. Repsol YPF has 30 days to exercise the right.
Trinidad and Tobago has 60 days to exercise its option to purchase up to 15% equity interest in the TSP assets.
If the deal closes, Perenco will become operator of the fields, but BPTT has not announced the respective ownership stakes that Perenco and Neal & Massy, an energy business unit of Neal & Massy Holdings Ltd., would have.
"The new owners of TSP will pay BPTT a fee for processing and handling TSP liquids," BPTT said in the statement.
The TSP fields have been on production since 1974. Peak production was 144,000 b/d in 1977. As of yearend 2004, the fields had produced 834 million bbl of oil.