Lundin Petroleum completes acquisition of Coparex

Swedish oil and gas exploration and production company Lundin Petroleum AB said on Friday it had completed the acquisition of a 95.3 percent interest in Coparex International S.A. from BNP Paribas and affiliates.

Lundin on 20 June 2002 proposed its purchase of Coparex interests in France, Tunisia, Netherlands, Venezuela and Indonesia for US$ 172.5 million and an additional payment of up to $ 27.5 million.

Coparex is a French exploration and production firm with current production in excess of 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

In Indonesian Lundin acquired several assets with proven oil and gas reserves of 9.4 million barrels of oil equivalent in approximately 28,027.7 sq. kilometer concession area from Coparex, which includes oil and gas interest in Blora (C. Java; 40 percent), Banyumas (C. Java; 50 percent), South Sokang (Natuna; 10 percent), Sareba (Papua; 100 percent), Salawati Basin PSC (Papua; 25 percent), Salawati JOB (Papua; 13,89 percent), and Lematang (S. Sumatra; 15 percent).

Lundin said it also had purchased an additional 3.5 percent of outstanding Coparex shares from minority shareholders at the same equivalent price to bring its current shareholding to 98.8 percent.

?This transaction will create excellent value for Lundin Petroleums shareholders. The strong world oil price has positively impacted the value of the deal for us and we continue to see more upside in the Coparex exploration portfolio. We now look forward to pursuing our positive growth strategy by increasing our reserves,? said Ashley Heppenstall, president and CEO of Lundin Petroleum. (robert)