Shell has sold its 45% stake in the offshore Irish Corrib gas field (close to the Mullet peninsula, County Mayo in North West Ireland) to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for €1.08bn (US$1.23bn). The agreement includes an initial consideration of US$947m (€830m) and additional payments of up to $285m (€250m) between 2018-2025. The transaction is expected to be completed in Q2 2018 and once completed, Shell will exit the upstream business in Ireland.
The Corrib Gas JV asset started to produce hydrocarbons at the end of 2015 and it reached an output of approximately 27 kboe/d in 2016 and Shell E&P Ireland was the operator of the project. Once the transaction is completed, Vermillion Energy will become the field new operator with a 18.5% stake (an additional 1.5% will be transferred from CPPIB). Statoil holds the remaining 36.5% interest in the field.
The sale agreement fits into Shell's $30bn worldwide divestment programme and Shell reported that US$20bn of non-core assets have already been sold. This strategy has been chosen in order to reduce the impact of the BG Group takeover in 2016.