Woodside oks Chevron's Browse exit
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AAP
August 21 2012, 10:10AM
Chevron was a joint venture partner in the Browse liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia along with Woodside, BHP Billiton, BP and Shell.
In a separate statement, Shell said it had entered into a binding agreement to buy Chevron's 16.7 per cent stake in the east Browse title and its 20 per cent interest in the west Browse title.
In exchange, Shell will hand over its 33.3 per cent stake in the Clio-Acme titles in the Carnarvon Basis, off Western Australia.
Shell also will pay Chevron $US450 million ($A432.59 million) as part of the deal.
Once the deal is completed, Shell will hold a 35 per cent stake in the west Browse titles and 25 per cent of the east Browse titles.
"This is a good deal, not only because it aligns with Shell's strategy of bigger direct stakes in key gas resources, but because it also helps to simplify the ownership of the Browse gas fields," Shell's upstream international director Andy Brown said.
The deadline for a final decision on whether to proceed with the project was recently pushed back to early 2013.
In July, Woodside gained the regulatory all-clear to sell a third of its stake in the $30 billion project to Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co.
The Japanese companies bought a 14.7 per cent stake in the project through their Perth-based joint venture company, Japan Australia LNG (MIMI).
