Talisman to pull out of the North Sea

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Road_Warrior

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Talisman to pull out of the North Sea

posted on Mar 04, 2009 04:20PM

It is doubtful that Talisman has any interest in buying ONSL as Talisman's interest is to get out of the North Sea and focus its attention on its shale gas operations in North America according to the following article:

Breaking News from The Globe and Mail

Talisman sells Bakken assets for $720-million

Reuters

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

CALGARY — — TriStar Oil & Gas Ltd. and Crescent Point Energy Trust said Wednesday they've agreed to buy Talisman Energy Inc.'s lands in the prolific Bakken oil region of Saskatchewan and Montana for $720-million to boost output.

The two companies will split the purchase price and jointly operate the assets, which produce about 8,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) and bring likely reserves of 45.6 million boed on 610,000 acres of exploration lands in southeast Saskatchewan.

The prolific Bakken shale region, which mostly lies under Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan, produces valuable but difficult to extract light oil. The U.S. Geological Survey last year pegged recoverable reserves in the Montana and North Dakota sections of the play at about 3.65 billion barrels.

Talisman put its holdings on the block earlier this year, as plunging oil prices cut into profits, despite the region's vast reserves and as the firm looks to concentrate drilling efforts on its unconventional natural gas assets.

“This is in keeping with our strategic objective to focus Talisman's portfolio on material, core assets,” John Manzoni, Talisman's chief executive officer, said in a release.

The company, Canada's No. 4 independent oil exploration firm, is also looking to sell properties in the North Sea as well as in Trinidad and Tobago, but has put the sales on hold until prices improve.

Talisman spokesman David Mann said the company will use proceeds from the sale to pay down debt and for other corporate purposes.

TriStar and Crescent Point have also agreed to sell some of the properties to Shelter Bay Energy Inc., a fund controlled by Crescent Point. The assets going to Shelter Bay produce about 500 boed.

TriStar said it will pay for a portion of the acquisition by selling 31.25 million subscription receipts to a group of underwriters led by Macquarie Capital Markets Canada.

The sale of the receipts, priced at $8 each, will raise about $250-million.

Separately, Crescent Point will sell 10.83 million trust units in a bought deal to raise $230-million.

With the deal expected to close June 1, Crescent Point also boosted its expected production rates for the year by to 40,500 boed from 38,250.