Licensees on Valhall and Hod

Valhall always had four licensees from the time it came on stream in 1982 and up to 2010, and BP and Hess have been the longest-serving of these. That is because what was Amoco Norway Oil Company in 1982 later became part of BP, while Amerada Petroleum Company of Norway is now incorporated in Hess.

Licence interest in Valhall in 1982 were:

• Amoco Norway Oil Company: 28.33 per cent
• Amerada Petroleum Company of Norway: 28.33 per cent
• Texas Eastern Norway Inc: 28.33 per cent
• Norwegian Oil Consortium A/S & Co: 15.00 per cent

Enterprise Oil Norway A/S acquired Texas Eastern’s interests in 10 production licences in 1989. By then, Amerada had changed its name to Amerada Hess Norge A/S. Licensee holdings on Valhall changed to:

• Amoco Norway Oil Company: 28.33 per cent
• Amerada Hess Norge A/S: 28.33 per cent
• Enterprise Oil Norway A/S: 28.33 per cent
• Norwegian Oil Consortium A/S & Co: 15.00 per cent

This constellation altered again in 1992, when Noco was sold to Elf:

• Amoco Norway Oil Company: 28.33 per cent
• Amerada Hess Norge A/S: 28.33 per cent
• Enterprise Oil Norway A/S: 28.33 per cent
• Elf Petroleum Norge AS: 15.00 per cent

Licence interests in Hod were distributed as follows in 1992:

• Amoco Norway Oil Company: 25 per cent
• Amerada Hess Norge A/S: 25 per cent
• Enterprise Oil Norway A/S: 25 per cent
• Elf Petroleum Norge AS: 25 per cent

Some minor adjustments were made in subsequent years, so that the licensee division in 1995 was:

• Amoco Norway Oil Company: 28.09 per cent
• Amerada Hess Norge A/S: 28.09 per cent
• Enterprise Oil Norway A/S: 28.09 per cent
• Elf Petroleum Norge AS: 15.72 per cent.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate annual reports, 1982–2010.

The wave of oil company mergers around 2000 also changed the licensee composition – or at least the names of the companies. BP and Amoco merged in 1998, becoming BP Amoco Norge AS in Norway. That involved no change to the percentage holdings in the two fields. The Amoco name was eliminated in 2000, when the company became BP Norge AS.

Elf merged in 2000 with TotalFina to create TotalFinaElf, renamed Total in 2003.

Enterprise Oil was acquired by Shell in the summer of 2002. Interests in Valhall accompanied this purchase.

During 2009, Hess took over Shell’s 28.09 and 25 per cent interests in Valhall and Hod respectively in exchange for holdings in the UK and Gabon. This swap increased Hess’ holdings in the two fields to 56.18 and 50 per cent respectively. The licensee composition was then:

• Amerada Hess Norge AS: 56.18 per cent
• BP Norge AS: 28.09 per cent
• Total E&P Norge AS: 15.72 per cent

Total E&P Norge wanted to sell its holdings in the fields to BP in April 2010. Olav Fjellså, head of communication at BP, commented: “We’ve been operator for Valhall and Hod from day one and have great faith in these fields. We see big opportunities for improving recovery.”[REMOVE]Fotnote: Dagens Næringsliv , 28 April 2010, “BP gjør milliardoppkjøp”.

But the transaction did not go quite according to plan, since Hess exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire 7.85 per cent of Valhall and 12.5 per cent of Hod.

That left Hess, as mentioned above, with majority holdings in the two fields, while BP retained operator responsibility for them with a minority stake.