EnQuest completes acquisition of Kraken stake

EnQuest, the largest UK independent oil producer in the North Sea, has completed the acquisition of a stake in the Kraken oil discovery, together with interests in the surrounding exploration acreage.

The transaction, first proposed on January 24th, will see EnQuest buy a 25% interest blocks 9/2b and 9/2c, including Kraken, from Nautical Petroleum which have a gross contingent resource estimate of 160m barrels of oil equivalents (MMboe).

As previously announced, the deal is worth between $150m and $240m, dependent on how much oil is shown to be in the blocks after testing.

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The firm will also acquire surrounding exploration acreage and has the option to earn a 45% farm-in interest in block 9/1a in return for paying up to 90% of the gross cost of drilling up to two wells to appraise the Ketos discovery, which has the potential to be tied back to the Kraken field.

BC