Premier Oil to sell North Sea Pipeline Stake
Premier Oil Plc will sell its 30 percent stake in a North Sea pipeline to UK gas infrastructure company CATS Management Ltd for up to 23.6 million pounds ($31.68 million), it said on Monday.
The Esmond Transportation System (ETS) pipeline, currently operated by Perenco UK Limited transports gas from Esmond Area fields to the Bacton gas terminal on the North Sea coast in Norfolk.
CATS will make an initial upfront payment of 21 million pounds payable on deal completion, which is currently expected in the first half of 2018.
It will pay up to 2.6 million pounds more if milestones related to development of the Pegasus field are achieved, London-listed Premier company said.
Premier said it would use the proceeds to pay down debt. Its net debt stood at $2.8 billion as of Sept. 30.
Perenco and Centrica Plc (CPYYY) have also entered into separate agreements to sell their interests in the pipeline to CATS, Premier said.
CATS is owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners.
Reporting by Arathy S Nair
