Kistos confirms interest in TotalEnergies' UK assets
London-listed Kistos confirmed on December 20 it was interested in acquiring assets west of the Shetland Islands in the UK that belong to TotalEnergies.
TotalEnergies was reported by Reuters in October to be considering the sale of a 20% stake in the Laggan-Tormore gas field in the area, with the news agency estimating that a deal could fetch around $300mn. The company and other oil and gas majors have been scaling back in the North Sea in recent years, to focus on higher-margin growth projects elsewhere.
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Kistos was established late last year by RockRose Energy founder Andrew Austin after he had sold RockRose to Viaro Energy for $310mn. It went on to buy the main assets of Netherlands-focused Tulip Oil earlier this year, and is eyeing further acquisitions.
Kistos "confirms that it is a participant in a process being run by TotalEnergies to sell interests in certain of TotalEnergies' West of Shetland gas assets," the company said.
"Kistos' participation in this process is in keeping with its stated strategy of growth through acquisition and this is one of a number of opportunities that has been actively considered over the past six months," it continued. "If Kistos becomes the preferred bidder in the process ... it is expected that any acquisition would be funded using the company's existing resources."
Kistos noted there was no certainty that a definitive transaction would emerge.