Tullow Oil completes acquisition

Tullow Oil, the oil and gas exploration company, has completed the purchase of Spring Energy, a Norwegian exploration-focused company.

The deal, which was first announced on December 11th of last year, sees Tullow Oil acquire Spring for $372 million (€288 million). The deal includes as much as $300 million in bonus payments to the vendors of Spring Energy in the event of exploration success.

Last week Spring was awarded 13 licences, of which four are operated, in the recent Norwegian licencing round. According to Tullow, the new licenses are “highly complementary and mostly adjacent to current acreage held”. The new acreage is located in all three areas of the Norwegian Continental Shelf – North Sea, Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.

According to Davy Stockbrokers, the deal “provides a rapid route into a Norwegian portfolio of exploration assets” for Tullow.