Ancala Midstream Acquisitions agrees to acquire Scottish area gas evacuation system (SAGE) interest from Apache

Ancala Midstream Acquisitions Limited (‘Ancala Midstream’) has today announced that it has agreed to terms to acquire Apache Beryl I’s (‘Apache’) interest in the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation system (‘SAGE’) and Beryl pipeline.

Ancala Midstream will acquire Apache’s 30.28 percent share of SAGE, and its 60.56 per cent interest in the Beryl pipeline, and intends to appoint Wood Group to be its Operating Partner, subject to the receipt of regulatory and third party approvals.

Wood Group, under the stewardship of Ancala Midstream, will manage the day-to-day operation of SAGE and the Beryl pipeline. Apache’s SAGE personnel will transfer to Wood Group to ensure continuity of service. The transition of ownership and operatorship is expected to complete in the first half of 2017. The SAGE system transports gas through the 323 kilometre (200 mile) SAGE pipeline between the northern part of the Central North Sea to the SAGE terminal at St Fergus, about 48 kilometres (30 miles) north of Aberdeen, where it is processed on behalf of North Sea gas producers.

Ancala Midstream’s management team will be led by Jim Halliday, who has been appointed as Chief Executive. Mr Halliday has over 35 years’ industry experience, having held a number of senior positions at BP, including VP of Midstream and Partner Operated Assets, Chief Financial Officer North Sea Region and Head of Global Commercial Operations. Jim Halliday, Chief Executive of Ancala Midstream says; “Our aim in making this investment is to maximise throughput for all producers, extend the life of the system, connect new fields and support efforts to maximise economic recovery in the North Sea for many years to come.

“Our priority through the transition period will be the continued safe operation of the plant and pipeline, regular and transparent engagement with all stakeholders and an efficient hand over of operations from Apache. ”Ancala Midstream is financed through funds managed by Ancala Partners. Spence Clunie, Managing Partner of Ancala Partners commented; “Ancala Partners makes long term investments in high quality infrastructure assets in the UK on behalf of UK pension plans. SAGE is a high quality business with a skilled and experienced workforce that fits well with the investment characteristics of Ancala Partners’ mandate. ”Ancala Midstream and Wood Group will work closely with Apache and key stakeholders over the coming months to ensure a safe and effective transition of ownership and operatorship.

Notes to editors

Ancala Partners 
Ancala Partners is an independent infrastructure investment manager focused on investing in core mid-market infrastructure assets in the UK. The Ancala Partners’ team combines industry and financial experience with a proven track record of accessing, executing and managing investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector.  For more information please visit www.ancala.com

Wood Group  
Wood Group is an international energy services company with around $6bn sales and operating in more than 50 countries. The Group designs, modifies, constructs and operates industrial facilities mainly for the oil & gas sector, right across the asset life-cycle. We enhance this with a wide range of specialist technical solutions including our world leading subsea, automation and integrity solutions. Our real differentiator is our range of services, the quality of our delivery, the passion of our people, our culture and values. We are extending the scale and scope of our core services into adjacent industries.

For more information visit www.woodgroup.com

Apache
Apache Corporation is an oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Canada, Egypt and the United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.apachecorp.com.