Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne buys $1,6 bln assets in North Sea from E.ON

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman has agreed to buy E.ON’s oil and gas assets in the Norwegian North Sea for $1.6 billion after his attempt to get a foothold in the British North Sea was blocked by the government. The deal, which is also subject to European Commission approval, is expected to close by the end of 2015, E.ON said.
After Wednesday’s announcement that LetterOne had bought E.ON’s Norwegian oil and gas assets, Norway’s oil minister said he welcomed international investment and the application for approval of the deal would be handled “the usual way”.
Both statements will be viewed with relief by wealthy Russians, who have been watching Fridman’s struggle to invest in Britain with great anxiety.
E.ON is in the middle of a major corporate overhaul. It is planning to spin off its energy trading, oil and gas activities and most of its power generation next year into a new company called Uniper.
As part of the overhaul, E.ON put its North Sea oil and gas E&P activities under review, hoping to rake in proceeds from a business where it lacks the critical mass to compete with large oil companies. E.ON E&P Norge has stakes in 43 licences but most are exploration assets, only a handful are in production and none is operated by E.ON. Its main production fields include Njord, operated by Statoil and Skarv, operated by BP.