Verus Petroleum Buys UK Oil Firm Cieco

Aberdeen-based Verus Petroleum has agreed to acquire Cieco, a subsidiary of Japanese commodity trading house Itochu for an undisclosed sum, Verus' majority owner, Norwegian private equity firm HitecVision, said on Thursday.

The acquisition, which includes a 23-percent stake in the Western Isles field development project, a 25.8 percent stake in the Hudson field, will add about 11,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day (boepd) to Verus, HitecVision added in a statement.

Norwegian business daily Dagens Naeringsliv, which first reported the news, said the deal's value was close to 3.3 billion crowns ($405.11 million).

Both Cieco and HitecVision were not available to comment.

Reuters reported in June that Itochu has been seeking buyers for its petroleum assets in Britain.

(Reporting by Camilla Knudsen and Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)