British Gas owner Centrica PLC (LSE:CNA) should have enough to cover the cost of the Christmas party once it completes the disposal of a bunch of oil and gas assets in the waters off Norway.
Spirit Energy, in which the UK utility is a 69% shareholder, is offloading its entire portfolio in Norway plus the Statfjord field for a headline £800mln.
Crucially, a total of £830mln of decommissioning liabilities will fall to the buyers, Sval Energi and Equinor.
After certain adjustments for retained cash flows and the unwinding of commodity price hedging positions, Centrica will walk away with £560m once the deal completes.
Centrica chief executive Chris O'Shea said oil and gas group Spirit will ‘effectively be in run-off’ as the company halts exploration to focus on ensuring it can meet the shutdown costs of its assets.
“With the disposal of these largely oil-producing assets to buyers who will be able to meet the material decommissioning costs, we can now focus on realising value for our shareholders from Spirit's remaining gas reserves,” he added.