Ineos buys North Sea assets from LetterOne

Swiss chemicals giant Ineos has bought its first British North Sea gas fields from Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s investment fund LetterOne, outlining plans to further expand its energy resources to support its petrochemical business.

The deal ends a stand-off between Fridman and the British government that gave him six months to dispose of the UK assets Letter-One had acquired from German utility RWE, or see their licences revoked as the West tightened sanctions against Moscow over its role in the Ukraine.

The sale was estimated at around $750m, according to banking sources, falling short of LetterOne’s initial target of $1.2bn.