Centrica plc today announced it has reached agreement with Petrofac Limited to dispose of its entire 23.15 per cent interest in the Hewett gas field and associated transportation and processing infrastructure in the Southern North Sea.
Under the agreement, Centrica will make a cash payment of £4 million to Petrofac, with Petrofac acquiring 65 million therms of gas and assuming full abandonment costs for the field, which has been in production since 1969. The agreement is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Centrica will continue to purchase gas from the Hewett field under the existing contract terms, with output for the remainder of 2005 purchased at a fixed price.
Sir Roy Gardner, Chief Executive of Centrica, said: “This agreement enables us to dispose of our interest, pre-abandonment, in an asset where we see no incremental strategic value to Centrica, while realising strong returns from our original acquisition cost.
“As part of our ongoing portfolio management, we expect to consider similar opportunities to rationalise or make best use of our equity assets.”