Definitive green light for the merger between Point Resources AS and Eni Norge AS, a subsidiary of Eni SpA which together give life to Var Energi, a leading hydrocarbon exploration and production company in Norway. Thanks to the completion of the envisaged conditions: including the opening of a formalized non-recourse financing on the sponsors for 3 billion dollars and the obtaining of the regulatory approvals, the merger operation has been concluded.
Eni owns a 69,6% stake in Vår Energi, and HitecVision a 30,4% stake. The new company employs around 800 people and a portfolio of 17 oil and gas fields with a wide geographical coverage, from the Barents Sea to the North Sea. In the press release announcing the completion of the merger, Eni estimates that within the end of the 2018 production will amount to approx 170.000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) e reserves of over 1.250 million barrels of oil equivalent. A growing production is expected with which by 2023they will try to achieve 250.000 boepd, in anticipation of the development of more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalent from ten existing assets and with a breakeven price of less than $30 per barrel. In total, the company plans to invest more than 65 billion Norwegian kroner (NOK), equivalent to $8 billion, over the next five years to bring these projects to fruition. The extensive Norwegian waters will allow the company to expand its portfolio with future exploration license tenders and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals.
The realization of the projects and the production efficiency will be the priorities of the management Kristin F. Kragseth which managing director e Philip D. Hemmens as chairman of the Board of Directors.
Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, counts “on the high quality of the human capital and assets in the portfolio, as well as the expansion opportunities still available in Norway. They will create significant added value for the shareholders of the new company." .Ole Ertvaag, managing director and founding partner of HitecVision underlines the “long tradition dating back even to the beginning of the country's oil adventure, with the license n. 001 of 1967 and the Ekofisk field, the first in Norway. After more than fifty years, Norway still has very significant oil and gas resources, and the combination of Eni and Point builds on decades of experience to create a completely new company for decades to come.
