UK law firm, Shepherd and Wedderburn acted for Cluff Natural Resources (CLNR), a natural resources investing company with gas assets in the Southern North Sea, in its acquisition of 5% participating interests in two offshore oil and gas licences from Verus Petroleum, with an option to increase its interests in those licences to 25% and to acquire a 25% interest in an additional licence in the Central North Sea.

Operated by The Parkmead Group, it is estimated that the licences, two of which are effectively drill ready, could contain around 400m barrels of potentially recoverable oil. In order to take advantage of the lower-cost operating environment in the North Sea, it is expected that wells will be drilled in both locations in the next 24 months.

Shepherd and Wedderburn subsequently advised CLNR on the cross assignment of equity positions in two contiguous offshore licence areas with Simwell Resources Ltd and Burgate E&P Ltd. CLNR took the decision to combine the equity position following the identification of a large carboniferous gas prospect which extends across the two licences.

The Shepherd and Wedderburn team who advised CLNR on both transactions included corporate lawyers Stephen Trombala, Tom Swan, Eilidh Gillanders and tax partner, Stephen Miller