A HUSBAND and wife have netted windfalls totalling £30m after selling the North Sea oil and gas firm they named after a pop song that their children loved.

Miles Newman and Isabel Davies sold their Banchory-based Reach Oil and Gas to Trap Oil in a deal that appears to represent a big vote of confidence in the UK North Sea.

The company was named after the S Club 7 song Reach for the Stars and was set up in 2002 by the couple, who had previously worked in exploration and appraisal for prominent oil and gas firms.

Mr Newman and Ms Davies, who have combined work with raising four school-aged children, believed there could be big finds to be made off Scotland in areas that others had overlooked and they bid for low-cost licences in the hope they would be able to persuade others to shoulder the cost of drilling any prospects they identified.

They now have 14 exploration licences in the UK North Sea covering an area of around 2000km2 and although the company is not producing any oil or gas yet the cash and shares deal provides a lucrative endorsement of the strategy Reach has pursued.

Ms Davies, 47, and Mr Newman, 48, were not available for comment. In a statement, Ms Davies said: “We believe the UK Continental Shelf is a great place to explore, develop and produce hydrocarbons with many decades of activity ahead.”

She said Reach was pleased its exploration portfolio would be taken forward by Trap Oil, a London-based firm which has paid what looks like a high price for the portfolio of interests in North Sea licences which Reach had spent the last nine years quietly amassing.

The licences were issued under the Promote Scheme that ministers hoped would encourage interest from smaller firms.

Working with a skeleton staff, Mr Newman and Ms Davies managed to convince a range of significant oil and gas firms to help fund the cost of drilling wells in exchange for taking a stake in licences. Partners include Scottish Gas owner Centrica and BG.

In an unusual development for the cash-intensive industry Mr Newman and Ms Davies developed Reach from their own resources. Companies House records show they shared 50:50 control of Reach until Trap Oil came long.

Reach achieved renown in 2006 when it found oil with a well drilled in the Moray Firth, with Petro-Canada. Reach’s interests now include the Lybster field in the Moray Firth which is under development. Trap said Reach has three discoveries awaiting near-term development and “a number of near-term drillable exploration opportunities”.

The deal appears to fly in the face of predictions that the hike in North Sea taxes in the Spring Budget would lead firms to cut investment in the North Sea.

The oil and gas veteran who runs Trap Oil, Mark Groves-Gidney, said the projects Reach was developing offered attractive returns, even following the 12 percentage point increase in tax rates in the Budget.

He said Trap Oil wanted to buy more North Sea assets and had made offers for two targets which had production. He declined to give details.

Directors have no plans to move into other areas.

Jon Clark, head of oil and gas transactions at Ernst & Young, which advised Reach, said other firms were discussing deals.

He said activity levels would be maintained in the medium term. However, in the short term people might pause while they waited to see if the Government would provide the incentives required to make investment in marginal fields profitable.