Caledonia bought for £470 million

has announced plans to acquire

(COGL), a British gas production company with interests in a total of 15 gas fields in the UK Southern North Sea.

Caledonia’s gas reserves total approximately 14 billion m3 and will be produced over the next 10 years. This quantity is equivalent to the annual gas consumption of about nine million households.

Apart from its stakes in gas fields, COGL fully owns Caledonia Energy Trading Limited (CETL) and has interests in two pipeline systems near the gas fields for transporting gas to the UK.

The purchase price (debt included) for COGL, which has been owned by a group of investors led by the energy focused private equity firm First Reserve, is approx. £470 million. The transaction still has to be cleared by the relevant British authorities.

"The acquisition of Caledonia brings us significantly closer to our goal of covering up to 15-20 % of the gas needs of E.ON Ruhrgas from our own production in the long run," commented E.ON's CEO Wulf Bernotat.