Kuwait pays $500m for North Sea oil stake

Kuwait's state oil firm will pay around $500m for a stake in a North Sea oil field owned by oil and gas explorer EnQuest, the London-listed firm said. EnQuest said on Tuesday it will farm out a 35 percent interest in its Alma and Galia oil field developments to the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC), a unit of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said in a statement that the move was "good news for North East Scotland". "Today's deal between EnQuest and KUFPEC, bringing up to 300 million pounds of foreign investment into the North Sea, proves that the UK continental shelf remains an attractive prospect," he said. Production has been falling in the region since 1999 and Britain has recently made moves to shore up investment by introducing tax relief clarity and tax breaks. Alma, the first oil field to be developed in the UK North Sea, was previously abandoned but has been redeveloped with new technology, with production expected in 2013.