Royal Dutch Shell Plc has signed agreements to sell a chunk of its undeveloped oilsands interests in Canada. The more than $8.5 million deal with Canadian Natural Resources will have Shell reduce its stake in the Athabasca Oilsands project by 60 per cent. For the Peace River assets, they will sell 100 per cent of their interest to Canadian Natural Resources.
In the second agreement, Shell and Canadian Natural will jointly take over and own Marathon Oil Canada Corp. for $1.25 billion each. Marathon Oil holds 20 per cent interest in the Athabasca project. This agreement is subject to regulatory approval and the transactions are set to close mid-2017.
Output from Shell in the Athabasca project before the deal was about 150,000 barrels a day with another 14,800 barrels a day from Peace River.
As part of the agreements, 3100 employees from Shell and Marathon will be welcomed to Canadian Natural Resources including 110 from Peace River.