Publications
Managing decommissioning risk in M&A transactions
Wednesday 9th December 2020
Chris Starling
With $14 billion of commitments before 2024, according to Rystad, decommissioning costs have long been a risk to and blocker in transactions, especially portfolio and corporate deals. The sector has moved a long way since early stage bilateral decommissioning agreements as sellers sought to navigate Section 29 of the Energy Act 2008 and other commercial risks in pursuit of the "clean break". As the ownership of assets has evolved, so too has the structuring of arrangements regarding the allocation of decommissioning liabilities. In 2000, 80% of licences were held by 30 operators, most of them majors. Since then, utilities have come (and mostly gone), private equity has come (and some will look to go), and the majors have rationalised portfolios.…
New UK Gas Transport Charges Regime
Wednesday 2nd September 2020
Andy Giles
The new Gas Year is fast approaching along with the associated gas sales contract awards and renewals. This year will be more complicated than normal for the UK following Ofgem's announcement on 28th May 2020 of the introduction of the long awaited ' Postage Stamp' NTS transportation charging regime effective from 1st October 2020. Parties will be looking to include the impact of this in new gas sales contracts or in the amending of existing contracts. In addition, the optional commodity charge ( 'Short-haul Tariff') is no longer available to NTS users and this will have a detrimental impact on premiums offered by gas buyers at UK gas terminals and in particular Bacton & Teesside terminals. The new entry capacity regime…
