The oil and gas company founded by the former boss of Centrica, which owns British Gas, has confirmed that it will be sold to Italy’s Eni for almost $5bn (£3.9m) in one of Europe’s largest oil and gas takeovers in a decade.
Neptune Energy, which was established by Sam Laidlaw five years ago, said Eni had agreed to buy the company for $2.6bn, while Eni’s Norwegian-listed subsidiary, Vår Energi, will acquire Neptune’s Norwegian business for $2.3bn.
Neptune operates oil and gas fields across the UK, Norway, Germany, Algeria, the Netherlands and Indonesia. Neptune’s business in Germany is not part of the Eni transactions and will continue to be owned and operated by Neptune’s existing shareholders as a standalone group.
The London-headquartered company, which employs about 200 people between the capital and Aberdeen, is owned by the sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, as well as funds advised by private equity groups Carlyle and CVC Partners.
Laidlaw said he was “incredibly proud of Neptune’s achievements over the past five years”, adding that the deal would bring “a new and exciting phase for Neptune” as the business benefits from Eni and Vår Energi’s “larger scale and available resources”.
Eni is expected to benefit from Neptune’s strong gas reserves as it works towards increasing its share of gas production to 60% of its portfolio as part of its plans to achieve net zero by 2030. Neptune produces the equivalent of about 135,000 barrels of oil a day, roughly three-quarters of which is gas.
The former big six energy boss was a vocal critic of the government’s windfall tax on oil companies’ UK profits, which he said disproportionately affected smaller independent oil and gas companies.
He said that the energy profits levies had “sent investor confidence to an all-time low” and would “risk the vital work government and industry must do to bolster energy security” and meet the UK’s CO2 reduction targets.
Laidlaw was at the helm of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, for eight years before he stepped down in 2014 amid a political firestorm over home energy bills and supplier profits.
At the time the industry was under scrutiny by the Competition and Markets Authority and the Labour party had put forward plans for a freeze on standard energy tariffs. This policy was later adopted by the Conservative government as the energy price cap.
