Norway: partnership between Eni Norge and Point Resources kicks off Var Energi
Eni Norge, a Norwegian subsidiary of the Eni group, has partnered with Point Resources, a Norwegian oil & gas company controlled by local private equity investor HitecVision, to kick off Var Energi, an independent company with 17 producing oil and gas fields in the Barents and North Seas and a production of nearly 180,000 barrels a day in 2018. The company will have reserves and resources of more than 1,250 million barrels of oil equivalent and Eni estimates that production is likely to reach 250,000 barrels a day by 2023.
The new company plans to invest more than 8 billion dollars over the next five years. The partnership should enable the Italian oil company to further expand its portfolio by participating in future exploration bid rounds.
Eni is the new company’s majority shareholder with 69.6% of the shares while Norway’s HitecVision will have 30.4% of the shares. The merger is presently being submitted to consultations with employees and unions in compliance with Norwegian legislation and is expected to be finalised by the end of the year. Var Energi will be Norway’s fourth-largest oil company after Equinor, Petoro (both owned by the Norwegian Government) and French-owned Total.
