Exxon Mobil to Sell Norway Upstream Operations to Eni's Var for $4.5 Billion -- Update

By Colin Kellaher

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) on Thursday said it agreed to sell its non-operated upstream assets in Norway to Eni SpA's (ENI.MI) majority-owned Var Energi AS for $4.5 billion.

Exxon said the sale includes ownership interests in more than 20 producing fields operated mostly by Norway's Equinor ASA (EQNR.OS), with combined production of roughly 150,000 oil-equivalent barrels a day.

The Houston energy giant said the sale, which it expects to complete by the end of the year, is part of its plans to shed about $15 billion in non-strategic assets by 2021.

Exxon last week said it was testing market interest in its producing assets in southeastern Australia, including its interest in oil-and-gas fields in the Gippsland Basin in Bass Strait off the state of Victoria, offshore platforms and its Longford and Long Island Point plants.

Eni last year merged its Eni Norge AS unit with Point Resources AS, owned by private-equity firm HitecVision A/S (HITV.NO), to form Var Energi. Eni owns 69.6% of Var, with HitecVision holding 30.4%.

Stavanger-based Var said the Exxon deal will make it the second-largest upstream company on the Norwegian continental shelf, behind Equinor.

Norway's energy ministry in January granted 13 licenses to Var, including four operatorships and nine partnerships covering Norway's main oil-and-gas provinces in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.

Exxon in 2017 sold its stakes in Norway's Balder, Jotun Ringhorne and Ringhorne East fields to Point Resources.

Exxon on Thursday said it is keeping its refinery in Slagen and its Esso-branded retail network in Norway, adding that the majority of its employees affected by the sale will transfer to Var.

The energy giant said it is on track to meet its $15 billion divestiture target by 2021.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2019 13:58 ET (17:58 GMT)

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