KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 19): Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd announced that its 35%-owned Lime Petroleum Norway AS (Lime Norway) has acquired a 30% stake in an oil reserves license at North Sea, where drilling is anticipated in 2016.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Hibiscus said Lime Norway has executed an agreement with Lundin Norway AS, for the acquisition.

Lundin is a Swedish independent oil and gas exploration and production company listed on NASDAQ Stockholm, with assets primarily located in Europe and South East Asia.

The license, dubbed PL410, is located south of Edvard Grieg field on the Utsira High in the North Sea, in water depth of about 100 meters.

“The license contains a number of interesting exploration targets that are being evaluated. Drilling could take place in late 2016, given that a drill decision milestone is taken at the license in the first quarter of 2016,” the filing read.

However, Hibiscus did not disclose the price transacted for the deal in the filing.

Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to the relevant authority approval, Hibiscus said Lundin, which is the license’s operator, will be left with a 52.35% stake, while the remaining 17.65% stake is owned by Statoil Petroleum AS.

Statoil is an international energy company, listed on both the Oslo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. It has a worldwide presence in more than 30 countries around the world, with its largest activities in Norway.

Hibiscus (fundamental: 1.65; valuation: 0.3) fell one sen or 1.27% to 78 sen today, valuing at RM774.84 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)