Exploration company Tullow Oil has completed the first part of its acquisition of North Sea gas assets and infrastructure from BP.
The Murdoch-Boulton package acquired today comprises interests in three licences and includes two producing fields.
The sale of the assets to Tullow for a maximum of £201m was agreed last year following BP's takeover of ARCO. Tullow expects to acquire the remaining assets under the deal by the end of March.
The fields being acquired had reserves of 242.6 billion cubic feet of gas at the end of 1999 and are producing, on average, 150 million cubic feet a day.
Tullow managing director Aidan Heavey says the cashflow from the acquisition will be used as the engine of future development and exploration activities.
