Australian firm signs trio of UK North Sea farm-out deals

Australian firm Finder Energy on November 8 announced the signing of three deals to farm out interests in licences in the UK central North Sea to Aberdeen-based Dana Petroleum.

The transactions cover stakes in the P2527, P2528 and P2530 licences, leaving Finder with operatorship and 60% stakes in the assets. It will receive £1.3mn (£1.1mn) in cash from Dana when the deals are completed.

Dana and Finder already work together at licence P2502 in the East Shetland basin.

"Dana Petroleum’s like-minded exploration strategy, development and production capabilities as well as ownership of proximal North Sea infrastructure makes them a partner of choice for Finder and demonstrates the significant potential for further value-accretive deals from our ILX strategy," Finder CEO Damon Neaves said in a statement. "We are very pleased to build on our existing partnership with Dana. These three deals represent a significant expansion of our mutual aspirations in the North Sea, with a focus on prospectivity around the giant Buzzard oilfield."

Finder has licensed 3D seismic datassets and recently finished high-end PSDM-FWI 3D reprocessing work at the three licences.

"The results of the reprocessed datasets have exceeded Finder's expectations with both showing significant improvement in imaging at the target objectives," Finder said.