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07 Nov 16 – Royal Dutch Shell [NYSE:RDSA], the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant, will look to sell a stake of its holding in the Rovuma Blocks 1 and 4 in Tanzania in 1Q17, Eugene Okpere, the company’s Vice President Exploration, South America & Africa, told Mergermarket. An exploration drilling programme is underway on the blocks, Okpere said. Shell will consider farming down its stake in the blocks when it receives the drilling results, which will be in 1Q17, Okpere added. Okpere did not specify the amount of cash Shell will look to raise through the stake sale. The size of the stake on offer will depend on the offers received from bidding parties, he said. Shell acquired a 60% stake in both Blocks 1 and 4 as part of its USD 50bn takeover of BG Group earlier this year. Shell is the operator of the blocks. Ophir Energy [LON:OPHR] and Singapore-based Pavilion Energy are also partners in the projects, with 20% stake each. Pavilion bought its share of Block 1 and Block 4 for USD 1.3bn in 2013, although oil prices at the time were about double that of today’s. The blocks have combined contingent resources of 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which is a sufficient amount to support a three-train LNG development, according to Ophir’s website. Shell has a market capitalisation of USD 204.68bn. By Katie McQue |
Katie McQue 