North Sea asset sales healthy for now

A post-2014 shake up has revitalised the basin, but challenges remain for private equity investors looking to exit, says RBC

A UK North Sea E&P sector that is leaner and better equipped to deal with volatility cycles has emerged from the cutbacks and soul-searching triggered by the 2014 price crash, according to bank RBC.  A healthy M&A market is putting assets into the right hands, either existing players expanding their portfolios or new entrants attracted by improved regulations and the UK’s legal certainty, Martin Copeland, RBC’s head of EMEA Energy told Petroleum Economist at Aberdeen’s Offshore Europe conference.  The looming challenge is, though, how private equity (PE) investors that have backed a number of the North Sea’s recent new entrants withdraw their funds, particularly with a global equity