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Harbour Energy, one of the UK’s largest independent oil and gas companies, has announced a $3.2bn cash-and-shares offer for LLOG Exploration in the US, as it continues to expand its business beyond the North Sea.
Harbour said it would pay $2.7bn in cash and $500mn in ordinary shares for privately held LLOG, which has a portfolio of deepwater oil in the Gulf of Mexico that produces about 34,000 barrels a day but which is expected to yield double that total by 2028.
Linda Cook, Harbour’s chief executive, did not rule out the possibility of moving the company’s London listing to the US after the deal, saying that Harbour sees an opportunity to grow in the US, Argentina and Mexico, while its UK assets decline.
“That centre of gravity over time will be shifting to the west. What does that mean in terms of the listing? We just continue to assess what will make the most sense . . . as our portfolio continues to evolve,” she said.
LLOG put itself up for sale earlier this year following the death in 2024 of its founder Gerald Boelte. Harbour said LLOG would become its new Gulf of Mexico business unit and that it would incorporate LLOG’s name, a condition stipulated by Boelte’s family.
Shell had been interested in a potential deal for LLOG, Reuters previously reported. Shell declined to comment at the time.
Cook said Harbour had “worked very hard to meet the seller’s priorities, which were not just about price”.
“We respected the broader objectives, in relation to the employees and honouring the proud heritage,” she said.
Harbour said the deal would support its efforts to maintain production at 500,000 b/d through the end of the decade.
Cook said Harbour had a “long-standing ambition” to establish a deepwater operation in the Gulf and that LLOG’s oil-weighted assets would extend Harbour’s reserves and improve its margins. “It gives us a lot of running room in a basin where there is a lot more to play for going forward,” she added.
Cook has been steadily moving Harbour, which was formed in 2021 from the merger of Premier Oil and Chrysaor, beyond the North Sea and into Norway, Argentina and Mexico.
However, the company, which earlier this month announced 100 job losses in the UK, also said recently it would acquire the North Sea assets of Waldorf Energy Partners and Waldorf Production out of administration for $170mn. Cook said the deal for Waldorf had given Harbour “$900mn of value when it comes to our ability to utilise the tax losses in the UK”.