Shell to sell North Sea, Thai assets worth U$4.7b

LONDON: Royal Dutch Shell announced two divestments yesterday worth US$4.7 billion (RM20.8 billion), including selling a chunk of its North Sea assets to private-equity backed Chrysaor, which will now become a top three oil and gas producer in Britain.

The deals bring Shell’s disposals to US$12.5 billion since mid-2015 as it aims for US$30 billion in deals by 2018. Shell is reducing debt accrued through its US$54 billion acquisition of BG Group last year.

Shell agreed to sell a mixture of new and late-life North Sea oil and gas assets, accounting for more than half of Shell’s UK North Sea production, to Chrysaor for up to US$3.8 billion.

The deal is expected to complete in the second half of the year and will make Chrysaor Britain’s leading independent exploration and production company.

Chrysaor is backed by EIG and Noble Group investment firm Harbour Energy. BMO Capital Markets Ltd advised the company, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised Shell.

The package includes Shell’s interests in Buzzard, north of Aberdeen, a relatively new field that feeds into the global Brent oil benchmark, as well as a 10% stake in the BPoperated Schiehallion oilfield. Other fields include Beryl, Bressay, Elgin-Franklin, JBlock, the Greater Armada cluster, Everest, Lomond and Erskine, the companies said.

Shell agreed to cover US$1 billion of the assets’ total US$3.9 billion decommissioning costs.

Shell also announced the sale of a stake in Thailand’s Bongkot gas field to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co for US$900 million. – Reuters