BP PLC signed an agreement to sell adjoining production and exploration assets on the United Kingdom’s side of the North Sea that include the Culzean gas and condensate field to Serica Energy PLC for at least $232 million, Serica said Monday.
The transaction consists of BP’s 32 percent non-operating stake in the P111 license, which contains Culzean, and the adjacent P2544 exploration block, Serica said in a press release.
The acquisition is subject to a 30-day preemption period during which BP’s partners – operator TotalEnergies SE (49.99 percent) and NEO NEXT Energy Ltd (18.01 percent) – may exercise their option to acquire BP’s stake on the same terms as those agreed by Serica, Serica said.
“Should this transaction complete, it would deliver a step-change for Serica, adding material production and cash flows from the largest producing gas field in the UK”, Serica chief executive Chris Cox said. “Culzean is a world-class asset, delivering gas from a modern platform with exceptionally high uptime and low emissions”.
BP’s share of production from Culzean was about 25,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the first half of 2025, Serica noted.
The transaction involves an upfront cash consideration of $232 million, “subject to customary working capital adjustments and partially offset by the receipt of a payment reflecting interim post-tax cashflows between the economic date of the transaction [September 1, 2025] and the completion date, expected around the end of 2025”, Serica said.
Serica may make two additional cash payments contingent on “successful results and production from a large exploration opportunity on the P2544 license and changes to the UK ring-fence fiscal regime”, Serica said.
“The company can fund the consideration through a combination of interim cashflows from the Culzean interest and existing financial resources (including cash and undrawn amounts under the existing $525 million Reserve Based Lending facility)”, Serica said.
“The company is however also considering putting in place a new acquisition facility, which would be refinanced in due course via increased debt facilities to reflect the company’s larger, more diversified and cash generative asset base inclusive of the Prax and Culzean acquisitions, which the company estimates would support a larger borrowing base”.
BP expects to make $3-4 billion worth of asset sales in 2025, part of a $20-billion divestment target by 2027 under the energy giant’s “reset” plan announced February 2025.
It logged $1.68 billion in “divestments and other proceeds” in the first half of 2025, according to its second quarter report.
“Expected proceeds from completed or announced divestments have reached around $3 billion for the year and we have now delivered around $1.7 billion of structural cost reductions since the start of our program”, chief executive Murray Auchincloss said in the report.
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