Toronto-listed Niko will use proceeds from the sale to pay down its debt to driller Diamond Offshore and its credit facililty, the company said.

“The sale of our interest in Block 5(c) is another important step in our plans and we look forward to further progress as we move through the year,” said Niko president Jake Brace.

BG Group now controls all of the Bounty, Endeavour and Turtle natural gas discoveries, which at one point had been proposed to be developed as a subsea tie-back project to the Dolphin platform.

However,