The acquisition results in a combined production from the two companies amounting to approximately 84 000 barrels of oil per day in 2013, making Det norske oljeselskap ASA one of the largest listed independent E&P companies in Europe in terms of output.

The acquisition was financed partly through a USD 3 billion reserve based lending (RBL) facility, which is also to our knowledge the first RBL to be governed by Norwegian law.

Arntzen de Besche, together with Herbert Smith Freehills, assisted the lenders, including BNP Paribas as documentation bank and DNB Bank ASA as facility agent.

AdeB's team has been led by Atle Gabrielsen, partner of our banking and financing group, assisted by Trond Kildal, also a partner of our banking and financing group, Dag Erlend Henriksen, partner of our E&P group, Rune Tjomsås Andersen, partner of our tax group and specialist in petroleum tax, as well as associates Lars Tomasson and Eivind Aarnes Nilsen.