Wintershall, the oil and gas arm of chemicals group BASF, has taken over as operator of the North Sea Vega oil and gas field from Norway’s Statoil.

Wintershall now operates two fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, Brage and Vega, the latter its first field with a subsea tie-in, the Kassel-based firm said in a statement.

The deal completes a $1.25 billion transaction decided last year, in which Wintershall bought a string of field assets and exploration projects from state-owned Statoil to raise its Norwegian production to 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day from 40,000 boe.

The deal, which was backdated to Jan. 1, 2014, was aimed at complementing Wintershall’s main focus on Russia with more options and should allow Statoil to free up cash for other developments.

Wintershall chief executive Rainer Seele said last month his company would seek to step up investment in western Europe, South America and the Middle East.

Vega has been in operation since 2010 and is tied to the Gjoa platform 28 km (17 miles) east of Vega.

Wintershall has a share of 55.6 % while other partners are Petoro (28.3 %), Bayerngas (7.3 %), GDF Suez (4.4 %), and Idemitsu (4.4 %).