Noreco Hands Cash and Licenses to Det Norske to Cut Liabilities

Oil firm Det norske will take over smaller competitor Noreco's Norwegian license portfolio and a pile of cash at no cost, the latest in a string of deals by companies on Norway's continental shelf, it said on Wednesday.

 

The transaction absolves Noreco of making further investments and will allow bond holders to recover an estimated 94.7 percent of the principal amount under the firm's NOR06 bond issue, Noreco said separately.

 

The portfolio taken on by Det norske consists of seven licenses, including a 20 percent stake in the Gohta discovery in the Barents Sea and 45 million Norwegian crowns in cash, the two firms said.

 

Det norske spokesman Rolf Jarle Broeske said the takeover came at no cost, although it included both rights and commitments in addition to 19 employees.

 

"We are continuing what we have been doing for the past year-and-a-half, to grow on the Norwegian continental shelf," he added.

 

Det norske has recently bought both Svenska Petroleum Norway and Premier Oil's Norwegian subsidiary.

 

Shares in the Det norske were down 2.8 percent to 58.35 Norwegian crowns at 0956 GMT, against a 0.3 percent fall in the Oslo Benchmark index. Noreco shares traded one percent lower for the day.


(Reporting by Henrik Stolen, editing by Terje Solsvik)