(WSJ) Royal Dutch Shell will sell its assets in the US most active oil field, the Permian basin, for $9.5 billion to ConocoPhillips as pressure mounts to cut carbon emissions.
Shell will return $7 billion from the sale to the shareholders in share repurchases and use the rest to boost its balance sheet.
Following the sale, Shell aims to focus on the Gulf of Mexico as its focal oil production, where it is currently a major offshore producer.
Shell has around 225,000 net acres in the Permian, producing up to 175,000 barrels of oil per day. The Permian is below 1% of the company’s carbon emissions.
The sale will be the largest in recent deals in the shale patch. Shell acquired the Permian assets in 2012 for about $1.9 billion from Chesapeake Energy.
Analysts say the deal underlines the growing importance of ESG, with ConocoPhillips promising to increase its reduction targets intensity by 2030 following the deal.
RDSA: AMS is up +3.72%, COP: NYSE is down -0.93% on premarket.
