MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, will exit the Wheatstone LNG project in Australia after selling its interests for USD1.14 billion to state-run Kuwait Foreign Exploration Petroleum Co., according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Shell, which had been involved in seven liquefied natural gas projects in the country, will concentrate investment away from the Chevron Corp.-led venture in Western Australia, it said. It will sell its 8% stake in the Wheatstone-Iago fields and 6.4% in the LNG plant to Kufpec, as the state-run Kuwait company is known.
"Shell will remain a major player in Australia’s energy industry," Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in the statement. "However, we are refocusing our investment to where we can add the most value with Shell’s capital and technology."
The Anglo-Dutch company, which planned to invest about USD50 billion in Australian LNG, has been reviewing projects worldwide after capital expenditure rose to record USD44 billion last year. Van Beurden, who took charge at the start of the year, may step up assets sales after Shell said Jan. 17 that fourth-quarter earnings will fall to the lowest since 2009.
The Hague-based company also said that it’s examining possible job cuts at its Australian Arrow Energy Ltd. unit. Shell together with its partner PetroChina Co., China’s biggest listed oil and gas producer, delayed an investment decision into the LNG project after costs in Australia surged.
As MRC reported before, Shell will build plants in Louisiana and Canada to produce liquefied natural gas as a fuel for heavy trucks and large ships. Shell, one of the largest gas producers in the US, will build the facilities in Geismar, Louisiana, along the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge, and in Sarnia, Ontario, on the southern shore of Lake Huron just east of Michigan. Each plant will be able to produce 250,000 tpy of LNG.
Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is also one of the world's most valuable companies.
MRC