Watson, Farley & Williams, a leading international law firm, is pleased to announce that it recently advised Bayerngas UK Ltd (“BGUK”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bayerngas Norge AS on two separate acquisitions relating to important gas development projects, both located in the UK Southern North Sea. These agreements are subject to regulatory and partner approval.

Bayerngas North Sea Ltd, a BGUK subsidiary, will acquire a 25% interest in the Clipper South project from Fairfield Energy. Clipper South is a tight gas development for which a Field Development Plan was recently submitted. BGUK believes first gas could be produced in 2012.

Bayerngas E & P Ltd, also a subsidiary of BGUK, will acquire Endeavour Energy’s 12.5% interest in the Cygnus project (where the partners are GDF Suez (38.75%, Operator) and Venture North Sea (48.75%)) for cash consideration of US$110 million. BGUK believes first gas could be produced in 2013.

Chris Kilburn, partner in the International Corporate Group, led the team for Watson, Farley & Williams on both transactions and was assisted by specialist oil and gas partner Mark Evans. Assistance was provided on these agreements by International Corporate Group associates Gareth Burge, Ben James and Helen Berg, and International Tax Group associates Clare Carpenter and Richard Stephens.

Speaking for BGUK, Gerry Harrison (Managing Director) said: “These two transactions are significant to the Bayerngas Norge Group and important to our ultimate shareholders. In combination, we believe the two projects will represent peak production of around 0.5 billion cubic metres of gas per annum, net to BGUK, or the equivalent of over 8,000 barrels of oil per day. This fits at the lower end of our strategic ambition in the UK, but nevertheless it is an excellent foundation on which to build additional growth through exploration and development projects”.

Chris Kilburn, Partner in the International Corporate Group comments:   “These have been interesting acquisitions which demonstrate the appetite in the market for good development projects.  We have noticed increasing interest from clients seeking to acquire or develop interests in the North Sea  at a time when drilling activity in the UKCS has recovered and is now surpassing the highest levels seen over the last decade. We ran the transactions concurrently with specialist input from members of our oil and gas team and we look forward to continuing to assist Bayerngas as it seeks to progress its gas acquisition strategy.”

Graham Watson and John Conlin of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Endeavour Energy. Guy Hardaker and Richard Waterlow of Holman Fenwick & Willan advised Fairfield Energy together with their in-house lawyer Jacquelynn Craw.

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For further information, please contact:
Alexandra Quilici
PR Executive
+44 20 7814 8088
aquilici@wfw.com

Editors’ notes:

1. Watson, Farley & Williams is an international law firm with offices in London, New York, Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Athens, Piraeus, Singapore and Bangkok. The firm currently has 298 lawyers and over 500 staff.

2. Watson, Farley & Williams is a leading international law firm providing services of high quality and value to clients throughout a range of industry sectors, with particular focus on: Finance & Investment, Maritime, Energy, Natural Resources, Transport, Real Estate and ICT. Lawyers from our international offices work as integrated teams to provide practical, commercially focused legal services. Our locations allow us sufficient geographical spread to be competitive in the global market and to provide consistently high quality legal services to our clients.

All references to ‘Watson, Farley & Williams’ and ‘the firm’ in this document mean Watson, Farley & Williams LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings. Any reference to a 'partner' means a member of Watson, Farley & Williams LLP, or a member or partner in an affiliated undertaking, or an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualification