PGNiG Upstream Norway of the ORLEN Group acquires control over the entire operations of the upstream company KUFPEC Norway. As a result of the transaction, ORLEN Group’s natural gas production in Norway will increase by one third and exceed 4 bcm per year. The acquired business includes shares in five fields where ORLEN Group is already producing. The gas extracted from them will be transported to Poland via the Baltic Pipe pipeline.

ORLEN Group’s Norwegian company, following a competitive acquisition procedure, concluded an agreement to purchase 100 per cent of the shares in KUFPEC Norway, a subsidiary of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company. As a result of acquiring control of KUFPEC Norway, PGNIG Upstream Norway will increase its stake in the Gina Krog, Sleipner Vest, Sleipner Ost, Gungne and Utgard fields, which are already in production. The transaction is planned to be finalised by the end of the year and still requires the appropriate approval from the Norwegian administration. The purchase of shares in KUFPEC Norway will be financed entirely with funds generated by PGNiG Upstream Norway from its operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

„Thanks to the acquisition of shares in KUFPEC Norway, ORLEN Group’s gas production in Norway will increase by more than 1 billion cubic metres a year”, said ORLEN CEO Daniel Obajtek.

According to the ORLEN CEO, “this transaction provides a number of synergies that strengthen our development potential in Norway”.

Unlike PGNiG Upstream Norway’s previous acquisitions, the agreement concerns the acquisition of all shares in KUFPEC Norway AS together with all its assets. The contractual price of the transaction is $445 million as of 1 January 2023 and includes the value of the fields acquired, as well as the value of the remaining assets of KUFPEC Norway, including a significant cash balance.

Adrian Andrzejewski