Shell disposes of Gulf of Mexico oil assets

Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell agrees to sell its Brutus-Glider operation in the Gulf of Mexico for $425m.

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Chicago - Royal Dutch Shell agreed to sell its Brutus-Glider operation in the Gulf of Mexico for $425 million as Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden seeks to resuscitate an explorer dinged by the lowest profits in more than a decade.

The buyer, EnVen Energy, will gain control of four blocks in the US part of the Gulf, as well as the platform and subsea pipeline network that funnel crude from the fields to shore, The Hague-based Shell said in a statement on Monday. The field pumps the equivalent of 25 000 barrels of oil a day, or 5.8 percent of Shell’s output in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell, the biggest oil producer in the US Gulf, has been cancelling projects and reducing cash outlays to cope with the plunge in oil markets and the burden of the company’s $54 billion purchase of BG Group in February.

Quarterly profit fell to an 11-year low in the three-month period that ended June 30 as poor refining results combined with production disruptions at oilfields from Africa to western Canada.

BLOOMBERG