Shell sells Norwegian Sea stake
Shell said it sold its Norwegian Sea stake -- one of largest new oil-field projects -- for five years to German energy group E.ON Ruhrgas for $893 million.
Under the agreement, E.ON will acquire a 28 percent stake in the $5.3 billion Skarv and Idun project -- a deal that would increase its position in the Norwegian Sea.
Shell said it would concentrate its investments on more short-term projects such as Ormen Lange, which is expected to come on-stream by November.
“The divestment of Skarv and Idun is part of the active management of Shell's portfolio-based strategy," David Loughman, managing director of Norske Shell, was cited as saying in media reports.
E.ON has purchased Shell's 28 percent stake to secure access to some of the area's gas resources to feed growing German markets.
"Ormen Lange is very important in our growth strategy," Loughman said. "We are investing to increase output from the Draugen asset, the development of Gjoa and further development of Statfjord, Troll, Kvitebjorn and Valhall assets."
Gazprom, Belarus hold gas debt talks
Officials from Russian gas giant Gazprom and the Belarus government are holding talks on ways to eliminate Belarus’ gas debts.
"We have no conflict with Belarus,” Sergei Kupriyanov, Gazprom spokesman, told Ekho Moskvy radio. “I hope this situation will once again remind our Belarusian colleagues that they should not extrapolate corporate relations onto interstate ones. Contracts must be honored, and we hope our colleagues will do that, while we will guarantee them the unfailing fulfillment of our commitments.”
Last Friday Gazprom threatened to reduce gas deliveries to Belarus by 45 percent if the country did not pay the debt of nearly $460 million.
After countless talks, Gazprom agreed to abstain from the limits if Belarus paid the entire debt before Aug. 10 and transferred current payments on time. Belarus paid two-thirds of the debt, about $300 million.
Under the gas delivery contract, Belarus will pay for 55 percent of the deliveries in the first half of this year and finish paying off the remaining debt by the end of December.
The contract set the gas price at $100 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.
Mexico hopes new project will boost output
Mexican offshore oil production grew slightly since January and could be on the rise again as a new platform is brought online, Pemex said.
Production from Cantarell, the country’s largest oil complex, is declining, but Pemex hopes to increase output from the Ku-Maloob-Zaap project.
Pemex said offshore oil production increased from 2.05 million barrels per day in January to 2.13 million bpd in June, with most of the growth coming from a new floating production storage and offloading vessel on the KMZ project.
The Cantarell complex, which is made up of six separate fields, fell 1.4 percent from 1.59 million bpd at the start of the year to 1.57 million bpd in June.
Government figures showed KMZ production rose 19 percent since January to 510,000 bpd in June, and all other offshore fields were pumping out 42,800 bpd.
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Closing oil prices, Aug. 8, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $71.55
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $72.03
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