Statoil ASA (STL)
,
Norway
’s biggest oil company, agreed to buy
Brigham
Exploration Co. (BEXP)
for about $4.4 billion in cash, expanding in
unconventional
U.S.
assets because of declining
North Sea
production.
Statoil will buy all of Brigham’s shares for
$36.50 each, a 20 percent premium on the Oct. 14 closing price, the
Stavanger-
based company said. It would be the
seventh-largest takeover announced in the oil and energy industry this year. The
premium compares with a 23 percent average this year in the industry, Bloomberg
calculations show.
By buying Brigham, Statoil will join
U.S.
competitors ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil
Corp. among the top 10 holders of acreage in the Bakken shale, according to
Bloomberg Industries. The 200,000 square-mile (518,000 square kilometers)
geological formation, centered on the Midwestern state of
North
Dakota
, may
eventually produce as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day from 400,000
barrels a day last year, according to local producers.
“By entering the Bakken and Three Forks we get
immediate operatorship,” Statoil Chief Executive Officer
Helge
Lund
said in a telephone interview. “It’s important
for us to position ourselves in the best unconventional areas and all the areas
we’re in now have very competitive cost levels.”
Production Slump
Government-controlled Statoil, which operates
about 80 percent of
Norway
’s petroleum production, is expanding in
unconventional gas, harsh-environment and deepwater areas abroad such as
Brazil
,
Angola
and the U.S. Gulf of
Mexico
to boost production.
Norway
’s oil production has slumped 50 percent since
2000 and Statoil missed output targets last year.
The company in 2008 entered
U.S.
shale gas resources by acquiring $3.38 billion
in assets from Chesapeake Energy Corp. and in June bought
Eagle
Ford
shale acreage from SM Energy Co. for $225
million with Talisman Energy Inc.
“I like it strategically,” Carl Christian
Bachke, an analyst at RS Platou Markets AS with a “buy” recommendation, said by
phone. “They are now heavily involved in Marcellus, Eagle Ford and Bakken. That’s
the place you want to be in the
U.S.
onshore and this is the last piece of that
puzzle.”