Energean ditches sale of Edison UK, Norway assets

Energean Oil & Gas said it had terminated a £225m deal to sell the UK and Norwegian assets it acquired from Italy's Edison last year.

The company said it was in talks with buyer Neptune Energy to amend the agreement to exclude the Norwegian unit from the transaction.

Neptune, which is backed by private equity, on Tuesday said it would pay £4m to scrap the deal which would have given it 25% of the 250m barrels of oil equivalent from the Glengorm discovery in the UK's North Sea.

Energean's plans to dispose of the assets relied on it completing the Edison acquisition, which it had hoped to complete by the end of 2019, but delays have stalled the process. In April, Energean and Edison firmed agreed to exclude Algerian assets from their deal, cutting the value by £120m.

If the deal goes through, Energean would retain Edison’s UK portfolio, which includes the stake in Glengorm, the largest gas condensate discovery in the Central North Sea in the last decade and operated by Chinese firm Cnooc, and 10% of the Isabella field, announced as a discovery earlier this year.

Neptune said it would "continue to pursue its pipeline of global development projects and other growth opportunities”.