Disposing Civita makes sense

Rockhopper Exploration (RKH) has announced the disposal of its Civita gas field (and a collection of other properties) to Northern Petroleum. The deal is good for RKH, as it reduces future abandonment liabilities on a number of licences in exchange for limited reduction in production cash flows (estimated gross profit of €0.7m in 2016) and a small consideration of $1.6m. It will likely reduce G&A costs going forward and allow RKH to concentrate on its three main assets in Italy (Monte Grosso, Ombrina Mare and Guendalina). The bulk of RKH’s value remains in its Sea Lion development and we hope progress is made in 2017 towards project sanction. We have adjusted our valuation for RKH to account for the deal, which reduces our NAV slightly to 72p/share.