Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., a unit of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., is considering bidding for a portfolio of North Sea assets being sold by EON SE, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg said June 29.
Kufpec, as the unit is known, is working with an adviser on the potential bid, which may value the assets at about $2 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. The assets, which are in U.K. and Norwegian waters, may also attract interest from both private- equity firms and strategic buyers, they said.
EON is working with Bank of America Corp. on the potential sale, people familiar with the matter said in March. Germany’s largest utility announced plans in November to break itself up, spinning off fossil-fuel power plants into a separate company to focus on renewable energy.
A slump in oil prices and rising costs of production have raised concerns about the future of North Sea developments, with several large explorers seeking to sell assets in the region. OMV AG, Austria’s biggest oil and gas company, is working with Barclays Plc as it seeks to sell part of its stake in a deepwater project in the U.K.’s North Sea, people with knowledge of the matter said last week.
Spokesmen for EON and Kufpec declined to comment.
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