Royal Dutch Shell has sold its stakes in two Australian natural gas businesses to Kuwaits state energy giant the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC)
The company announced the US$1.14bn disposal of its eight per cent interest in the Wheatstone-Iago joint venture and 6.4 per cent in the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia to the subsidiary of the Gulf state's national oil company. Wheatstone LNG is a plant under construction and is being developed and will be operated by Chevron Australia.
The acquisition almost doubles KUFPEC’s stake in the US$29bn LNG project to 13.4 per cent from 7 per cent. It includes Shell’s 8 per cent stake in Shell’s upstream gas supply joint venture with Chevron at the Wheatstone and Iago gas fields in the Carnarvon Basin.
Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell said, “We refocusing our investment to where we can add the most value with Shell's capital and technology. Shell will remain a major player in Australia's energy industry. We are making hard choices in our world-wide portfolio to improve Shell's capital efficiency.”
