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The Sunday Business Post has reported that NTR, the
Irish utilities group, has expressed an interest in buying
the Irish operation of Marathon Oil, which produces about
8 per cent of the country’s gas.
Marathon is considering offloading its Irish operation as
part of a global review and NTR is one of a number of companies
to have expressed a tentative interest in acquiring the assets,
according to sources close to the sale process.
Island Oil & Gas, the Irish exploration company, has
already confirmed that it is interested in securing Marathon’s
Irish operation and is viewed as the frontrunner in the sale
process.
Bord Gáis has also expressed an interest with Marathon’s
sale advisers.
NTR has not previously invested heavily in gas, but has significant
energy interests. The company recently netted about €850 million
from the €1.8 billion sale of wind energy firm Airtricity
to Scottish and Southern Energy, and has been actively making
new investments (Click
Here).
NTR last week merged its US ethanol business with Green Plains
Renewable Energy - a Nasdaq-listed firm (Click
Here) - and took a stake of over 40 per cent in that
business. Last month, the group re-entered the US wind energy
sector, by taking a controlling stake in Wind Capital Group,
a Missouri-based wind farm operator (Click
Here).
The investment quickly followed its purchase of a 51 per
cent stake in Arizona solar power company Stirling Energy
Systems for $100 million (Click
Here). NTR, which is headed by Jim Barry, has a market
capitalisation of almost €1.4 billion.
Marathon owns and operates the Kinsale Head and Ballycotton
gas fields. The firm also owns 86.5 per cent of the Seven
Head field, which it acquired in 2006 from Scottish explorer
Ramco. Marathon has a 18.5 per cent stake in the Corrib gas
field off the west coast.
The other two owners of the project are Shell and Statoil
and industry analysts said it would make sense for the two
companies to buy out Marathon’s stake. Marathon’s interest
in Corrib is financial only and it will not be operating the
field.
In a statement, Marathon said the review of its assets could
ultimately lead to a sale of the Irish business, if it received
an acceptable offer. However, if an acceptable offer is not
forthcoming, the firm said it would continue to operate the
fields itself.
Source - The Sunday Business Post
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