Oct. 4 (UPI) -- While defending a robust spending program, Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it was canceling an agreement to sell off a stake of its assets in Thailand.
Subsidiaries of Shell and the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. said they mutually agreed to cancel the multilmillion dollar sale of shares in Shell Integrated Gas Thailand Pte. Ltd., known also as SIGT, and Thai Energy Co Limited, or TEC.
Shell said the latter two would continue to support Thai partners in development of the Bongkot field.
"SIGT also intends to participate in the forthcoming licensing round for the extension of the Bongkot concession," Shell's announcement read.
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The latter two each hold an 11 percent stake in the Bongkot field off the Thai coast.
The Dutch supermajor, trimmed down after a merger last year with British energy company BG Group, reported a strong rebound so far in 2017, after turning in one of its weakest performances in more than a decade last year.
Net profit for the second quarter was $3.6 billion, up from the $1 billion reported for the second quarter 2016. From the first quarter, however, net profit is down about 4 percent.
In mid-July, the company said the $1.23 billion gained from leaving parts of the Irish energy sector puts Shell past the halfway point for its total divestment goal. In March, it took $587 for the sale of asset in Gabon and took $250 million for the sale of its aviation subsidiary in Australia in May
"Shell Group's divestment program continues to make good progress at both raising cash and re-shaping the company," it stated. "To date, the company has more than $25 billion in completed, announced or in progress divestments, on track to meet its target of $30 billion of divestments between 2016 and 2018."