Front Runners named for Chevron’s North Sea Fields

The front runners for the package of North Sea oil and gas fields put on sale by Chevron have been reported as IIsrael’s Delek Group Ltd. and U.K. chemicals company Ineos Group.

Both companies are reported to be ahead of other bids from Premier Oil Plc, Chrysaor Holdings Ltd. and Oman’s Petrogas.

The value of the fields is expected to be in region of as much as $2 billion.

Should one of the companies purchase the fields they would gain a major production boost in an area that is increasingly being developed by smaller independent companies.

Following Chevron Corporations purchase of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for $33 billion last week it is expected they would look to exit the North Sea as it increases focus on areas such as U.S. shale.

A Chevron spokeswoman declined to comment.

Chevron reported last year it was looking to sell all its U.K. central North Sea assets, including the Alba, Alder, Captain and Erskine fields as well as the Britannia, Elgin/Franklin and Jade non-operated projects.

The sale was announced before Chevron said it would offload as much as $20 billion of assets in the three years starting 2020 to help pay for the Anadarko purchase.

Read More: Chevron unveils $50bn takeover of rival Anadarko