Offshore staff
CALGARY, Canada – Sterling Resources (TSX-V: SLG) has agreed to sell its interests offshore Romania to Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP).
The transaction includes operated interests in Black Sea license blocks 13 Pelican, 15 Midia and 25 Luceafarul, and a non-operated stake in 27 Muridava. It has been structured as a corporate sale of Sterling’s subsidiary Midia Resources, and is expected to be completed around mid-2015, subject to partner and regulatory approvals.
On completion, CIEP will pay Sterling a cash consideration of $42.5 million.
Sterling’s entitlement to further contingent payments from the completed sale of its 65% interest in a carved-out portion of theMidia block to ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom is unaffected by the new agreement.
Jake Ulrich, Sterling’s CEO, said: “Sterling has had a presence in theRomanian Black Sea since 1997. As operator, we discovered the Ana gas field in 2007 and built up further contingent and prospective resources through further drilling, seismic acquisition and interpretation, and gaining new licenses.
“While we believe firmly in the significant future potential of these assets, we face material ongoing well commitments on our licenses and potentially very material development costs which are inappropriate for a company of our size… We have therefore decided to sell in order to focus our financial resources on the UK North Sea.”
04/02/2015
