Independent Oil and Gas plc (IOG), the North Sea focused oil and gas company, now owns 100% of licence P1609 which contains the Skipper discovery, in the UK North Sea, and is the licence operator.
Namely, IOG completed the acquisition of 50% of the licence from Alpha Petroleum Resources.
As IOG previously announced a consideration of $3 million will be payable at Field Development Plan approval stage and a further $15 million will be payable shortly after first oil.
Mark Routh , CEO of IOG commented: “We are delighted to have completed this material acquisition. We anticipate the commencement of drilling at the end of January or early February 2016 and look forward to making further announcements in due course.”
IOG signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire the interest in the licence from Alpha Petroleum in June 2015. After one of its investors pulled out , IOG had to look elsewhere for new funding. During December, IOG secured the funds and set a spud date for the Skipper well.
Furthermore, IOG signed a rig contract with Transocean to procure the Transocean John Shaw semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the appraisal well on the Skipper oil discovery.
Offshore Energy Today Staff