EnQuest has agreed with BP to manage the decommissioning activities for Thistle and Deveron, located 275 miles north-east of Aberdeen, UK.
The agreement follows EnQuest’s completion of the acquisition of 25% interest in the Magnus oil field from BP.
Under the agreement with BP, EnQuest will receive $30 million in cash in exchange for undertaking the decommissioning and making payments by reference to 3.7% of the gross decommissioning costs of the Thistle and Deveron fields when spend starts, subject to a cap of £57 million.
Furthermore, EnQuest will also have an option to receive a further $20 million in cash in exchange for making additional payments by reference to 2.4% of the gross decommissioning costs of these fields, subject to a cap of £42 million.
The option is exercisable over a 12 month period, the company said.
The Deveron field was discovered in 1972 and the Thistle field in 1973.
The Thistle Alpha platform was installed in 1976 and began production in 1978 for BNOC/Britoil/BP. The licence operatorship subsequently changed to DNO in 2003, then to Lundin in 2004 before the demerging of Lundin’s UK assets in 2010, when EnQuest became the operator.
The installation is operated by EnQuest who holds a 99% interest and BP holds 1%.