Venture Production has agreed to acquire additional interests in the Cygnus, Kepler, Copernicus and Humphrey gas discoveries together with interests in three exploration blocks. The four proven but undeveloped discoveries lie close to existing infrastructure in the Caister Murdoch System in the UK southern North Sea and in April 2008 Venture announced its acquisition of an initial 35% interest in each.

In this follow-on transaction Venture will acquire an additional 13.75% non-operated interest in the acreage containing these four discoveries from E.On Ruhrgas UK Caister Limited. The cash consideration will be £14.8 million payable at completion. As part of the same transaction, GDF Britain Limited (GDF) will acquire identical interests in the same assets and at the same consideration. GDF will remain license operator of each of the four discoveries.

Completion of the acquisition remains subject to customary partner and regulatory approval.

Commenting on the news, Mike Wagstaff, Chief Executive, said, "This deal gives us greater mass in a set of gas assets which we are already pushing forward through appraisal to development in conjunction with the operator. In Cygnus we will now have close to 50% of what could become one of the largest remaining southern North Sea gas developments."