Royal Dutch Shell plc: Shell to Sell Interest in Offshore Brazil BC-10
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, January 29, 2014/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) announced today an agreement to sell a 23%
interest in the Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project offshore Brazil to Qatar
Petroleum International for approximately US $1 billion, subject to closing.
The transaction is subject to approval by the National Petroleum and Gas Agency
(ANP, Brazil's Oil and Gas regulator) and the Administrative Council for
Economic Defense (CADE, Brazil's anti-trust authority).
Shell will continue to operate BC-10 with a 50% working interest and retains a
significant upstream presence in Brazil. In addition to the recent entry into
the Libra oil discovery, Shell is currently operating two floating, production,
storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in Brazil's offshore - the Espirito Santo
at Parque das Conchas and the Fluminense at the Bijupira/Salema fields.
Currently, BC-10 is producing approximately 50,000 boe/d. Since coming on-stream
in 2009, BC-10 has produced more than 80 million barrels of oil equivalent
(boe). Phase 2 of the project, to tie-in the Argonauta O-North field, came
online on October 1st 2013, with an expected peak production of 35,000 boe per
day. The final investment decision for Phase 3 of the BC-10 project was taken in
July 2013 and once online is expected to reach a peak production of 28,000 boe.
Shell has also other interests in Brazil, particularly our Lubricants business
and our joint venture Raizen, the leading sugar cane ethanol producer.
Cautionary note
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns
investments are separate entities. In this announcement "Shell", "Shell group"
and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are
made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the
words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or
to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful
purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies.
"Subsidiaries", "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this
announcement refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly
or indirectly has control. Companies over which Shell has joint control are
generally referred to "joint ventures" and companies over which Shell has
significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as
"associates". In this announcement, joint ventures and associates may also be
referred to as "equity-accounted investments".
The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or
indirect (for example, through our 23% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.)
ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after
exclusion of all third-party interest.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial
condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All
statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be,
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future
expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions
and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or
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Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning
the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements
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phrases.
There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal
Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those
expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement,
including (without limitation):
(a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for
Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production
results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry
competition;
(g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the
identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and
successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of
doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international
sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including
regulatory measures addressing climate change;
(k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions;
(l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of
the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the
approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and
(m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in
this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary
statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place
undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal
Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2012 (available at
http://www.shell.com/investor and http://www.sec.gov). These risk factors also
expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this announcement
and should be considered by the reader.
Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement,
January 29, 2014. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries
undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In
light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied
or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.
We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this announcement that
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us
from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider
closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC
website http://www.sec.gov. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by
calling 1-800-SEC-0330.
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