ConocoPhillips may offload Nigeria assets

• Tweet

ABUJA, Nigeria, May 9 (UPI) -- The Nigerian portfolio for U.S. supermajor ConocoPhillips is one of its "least exciting elements," an investment analyst said.

ConocoPhillips said it is looking for a buyer for its Nigerian assets. It has a stake in four onshore leases that produced around 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for 2011.

Conoco may look to offload as much as $10 billion worth of assets during the next year. Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc., told Bloomberg News Nigeria accounted for less than 3 percent of the supermajor's total daily output last year.

"It's definitely one of the least exciting elements of the Conoco asset base," he said. "I can definitely see why they'd want to exit."

British energy company Shell announced its Nigerian subsidiary declared force majeure on the Nigerian blend of crude as of May 4. The company said the decision was made because of "incessant crude theft" from one of its oil pipelines in the region.

Shell is under fire for a series of oil spills in Nigeria. The reporting on Conoco, however, made no mention of banditry or environmental issues.