Shell Divestments Since April 2015 Reach US$34 Billion

Since acquiring BG Group in the decade’s largest oil and gas deal worldwide in April 2015, Evaluate Energy M&A data shows that Royal Dutch Shell plc has now agreed to asset and business unit sales of US$34 billion across all sectors as it seeks to realign its portfolio.


Source: CanOils M&A Report, May 2018 (Shell’s sale of its stake in the AOSP and the sale of its 7.98 per cent stake in CNRL are included in the “Upstream - Oilsands and CNRL” portion of the chart.)

2018 has been especially busy for the company, having agreed asset sales in the United States, New Zealand, Iraq, Thailand, Malaysia, Oman, Canada and Norway.

Since the start of May, Shell has agreed the following three major sales to boost its asset sales total by US$4.6 billion. Meanwhile, the US$750 million sale of a 22 per cent stake in Thailand’s Bonkkot field to PTTEP, which was first announced in January, reached completion at the end of last week.

US$3.3 billion – Shell divests its 7.98 per cent stake in Canadian Natural Resources Limited

The largest of the three divestments since May began saw Shell sell its 7.98 per cent stake in Canadian Natural Resources Limited for US$3.3 billion. This sale is profiled in full in the latest CanOils M&A report, which can be downloaded at this link.

Shell only held the stake for around 12 months, having originally gained it via its agreement to sell a 60 per cent interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) that closed in May 2017.

US$750 million – Shell sells its interest in a Malaysian LNG project

The other two sales were both announced last week. The larger of the two, a US$750 million agreement in Malaysia, saw Shell exit the Malaysia LNG Tiga project, where it had held a 15 per cent stake. The stake was sold to the State of Sarawak government, which sees its interest in the project rise to 25 per cent.

This was Shell’s last remaining stake in the PETRONAS LNG complex — a nine train behemoth that has a LNG production capacity of 27.6 million tonnes per year. The Tiga portion of the complex has a capacity of 6.8 million tonnes per year.

US$556 million – Shell divests Norwegian assets to OKEA AS

The third deal was a sale of assets in the North Sea. Shell has agreed a US$556 million deal to sell its entire 44.56 per cent interest in the Draugen field and its 12.00 per cent interest in the Gjøa field to OKEA AS. The assets produced a combined 25,000 boe/d in 2017, which Shell says amounted to around 14 per cent of its total Norway production. This sale is expected to close by the end of the year.

The decommissioning costs associated with the assets are currently estimated to be $120 million after-tax (NOK 1,000 million); Shell will retain 80 per cent of this liability up to an agreed cap and OKEA will assume the remaining liability.

Top 10 Divestments by Shell since April 5, 2015 – All Sectors



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