Santos sells off assets

SANTOS is selling its stake in assets in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh for $US221 million ($293 million) to help slash its debt and increase its focus on its natural gas operations in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

The sale to London-listed Ophir Energy marks the company’s exit from those Asian countries, and the workers at the oil and gas projects will transfer to Ophir.

It is expected Ophir shareholders will be asked to approve the sale in June, and the proceeds of the deal will be used to cut net debt, which was $US2.5 billion ($3.31 billion) at the end of March.

Santos managing director and chief executive Kevin Gallagher said the sale would enable it to focus on its five core long-life natural gas assets in Australia and PNG. The assets to be sold produced 1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent in the first quarter of 2018.