Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to sell its stake in six Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields to American group W&T Offshore for $450 million dollars.
The sites produce the equivalent of about 18,000 barrels of oil per day, mostly in the form of natural gas.
The transaction forms part of a restructuring program which the Anglo-Dutch company hopes will raise between $7-$8 billion in 2010 and 2011.
Shell is looking to offload its small and isolated activities, both upstream (exploration and production) and downstream (refining and distribution) -- a process which has already been implemented over the past three months.
The group, which currently produces the equivalent of 230,000 barrels per day in the Gulf of Mexico, wants to concentrate on the development of large fields.
It will pay particular attention to the Mars B field, which has a potential yield of 100,000 barrels per day. Shell also holds stakes in several more promising and unexploited fields.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
