Wintershall, EDF Snap Up North Sea Oil and Gas Assets

By Marianne Stigset and Nidaa Bakhsh

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Wintershall Holding AG, BASF SE's oil and gas unit, and Electricite de France SA announced purchases of North Sea oil and gas assets amid plunging crude prices and tumbling stocks.

Wintershall offered to buy Norway's Revus Energy ASA for 110 kroner a share, or 5 billion kroner ($740 million), more than double its last closing price, the companies said today. EDF, the world's biggest utility, agreed to buy natural-gas fields in the U.K. North Sea from ATP Oil & Gas Corp. for 265 million pounds ($410 million), gaining access to 3 billion cubic meters of gas, the Paris-based company said.

``Revus has perhaps been the best exploration and production company on the Oslo stock exchange, which is what this offer shows,'' said Arnstein Wigestrand, an analyst at SEB Enskilda who rates the stock a ``buy.'' ``This isn't necessarily the starting shot for such acquisitions, but there are people looking at some of these companies on the Oslo exchange.''

Energy companies are stepping up efforts to acquire drilling and production rights amid a slump in world equity markets, which left assets trading at their cheapest levels in more than five years. The Dow Jones Europe Stoxx Oil & Gas Index has fallen 45 percent since the start of this year. Oil is heading for a 41 percent drop this month, the steepest since New York futures started trading in 1988.

Strongly Improves

``Revus strongly improves Wintershall's asset base in the North Sea, especially in Norway,'' Wintershall Chairman Reinier Zwitserloot said in a statement today. ``The activities of Revus lie in a politically and economically stable environment and geographically balance Wintershall's portfolio.''

Revus shares surged as much as 55.1 kroner, more than doubling, to 100 kroner, and traded at 97.25 kroner as of 2:29 p.m. in Oslo. Revus' board unanimously recommended the offer.

Trading below the offer price ``may be due to a certain degree of uncertainty remaining until the offer has been presented in its final form,'' Wigestrand said.

Output Cut

The offer is conditional upon the completion of due diligence on Revus and will be submitted to the Oslo stock exchange for approval before being presented to Revus' shareholders the week of Nov. 10, Wintershall said. It will need the approval of the Norwegian authorities, including the competition authorities, it said.

Revus, which operates on the Norwegian and UK continental shelves, cut its annual output guidance by 6 percent on Oct. 24 after third-quarter production didn't meet its expectations. The company sees total output for this year of 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from a previous guidance of 6,400 barrels a day. Revus third-quarter production came to 6,039 barrels a day, 14 percent below its earlier forecast.

``This is an attractive offer for our shareholders,'' Revus Chief Executive Officer Harald Vaboe said in a statement. ``While I am extremely proud of the value we have created at Revus Energy, we are excited about our future as part of a larger company.''

EDF's purchase of 80 percent of Houston-based ATP's U.K. unit includes the right to buy the remainder next year and transfer the assets to its 49 percent-owned Italian subsidiary Edison SpA, the French utility said today in a statement.

North Sea

The deal gives EDF a 68 percent share of the Tors zone, which includes two gas fields that came into production in March 2006 and February 2007, and an 80 percent stake in the Wenlock field, which came into production in December 2007, EDF said. EDF and ATP's boards have approved the purchase, which is subject to approval by ``relevant British authorities.''

EDF dropped as much as 3.56 euros, or 8.6 percent, to 38.575 euros, the biggest intraday decline since Oct. 10. The stock traded at 38.575 euros as of 2:31 p.m. Paris time, valuing the Paris-based company at 70.5 billion euros.

Earlier this month, GDF Suez SA, the world's second-biggest utility, became the largest oil and gas operator in the Dutch North Sea after it paid 1.08 billion euros for offshore fields and pipelines held by Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marianne Stigset in Oslo at mstigset@bloomberg.netNidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net