Energean Seals Edison Deal
Mediterranean-focused Energean has closed the purchase of the upstream arm of Italy's Edison, it reported on December 17, nearly a year and a half after signing the deal.
Energean was originally due to pay $750mn for Edison E&P, which has operations in Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, Italy, Norway and the UK. But the deal underwent several revisions after the collapse in oil prices earlier this year. First, Edison's assets in Algeria were excluded from the sale after difficulties getting consents from local authorities. Energean and Edison later lowered the deal's price tag to just $284mn, while also excluding the latter's Norwegian business.
"Completion of our acquisition of Edison E&P marks a key milestone along our path to becoming the leading independent gas producer in the Mediterranean and significantly advances us towards our goal of delivering material free cash flows and shareholder returns in a sustainable way," Energean CEO Mathios Rigas said.
Energean noted earlier in the day that it had struck deals with Israeli utility Rapac Energy and its related companies on the supply of an extra 0.4bn m3/year of gas from the Karish gas project in Israel for between six and 15 years from its launch, expected in the fourth quarter of 2021. This means Energean has now sold 7.4bn m3/yr of Karish's future gas output.
Energean plans to exploit Karish, which comprises the Karish, Karish North and Tanin fields, using a 8bn m3/yr floating production storage and offloading unit. The company recently revealed it was in talks to buy out its project partner, private equity fund Kerogen, which has a 30% interest.