Shell has agreed to sell its 16.67% non-operated interest in the North West Shelf (NWS) project to wholly owned subsidiaries of XRG, a division of Abu Dhabi's ADNOC.
The base consideration is $1.45 billion, subject to customary adjustments, plus an additional milestone-linked contingent payment.
The NWS project is an LNG and domestic gas development in Western Australia, run as a group of interconnected joint ventures involving Woodside, Chevron, BP, Shell, MIMI and CNOOC.
Shell's stake covers upstream interests, pipeline and midstream infrastructure, along with related petroleum and pipeline titles, offtake arrangements and CNOOC-related joint ventures.
Declining output from the original NWS fields has freed up capacity at the project's Karratha Gas Plant, which is shifting toward a mixed resource-production and third-party toll-processing model.
"This agreement reflects our commitment to disciplined capital allocation and portfolio choices," said Cederic Cremers, Shell's Integrated Gas President, adding that the sale "supports Shell's strategy by focusing investment on advantaged integrated gas positions."
The buyers will assume decommissioning obligations and provide security against them.
Shell sold its interest in the related Browse gas development, which envisaged processing gas through NWS infrastructure, in 2023, meanwhile, it still operates the Shell QGC project and Prelude FLNG in Australia, is developing the Crux project, and holds joint-venture stakes in Arrow Energy and Gorgon.
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