Shell Oil and Gas is selling all of its assets in the largest US oil field to rival ConocoPhillips. The deal will bring the Anglo-Dutch company $9.5 billion. This amounts to more than 8 billion euros.

Shell has long been looking for buyers for its assets in the oil and gas-rich Permian Basin, which is located in West Texas and southeast New Mexico. The area is famous for oil shale mining. Shell has been active there since 2012.

In a press release, Wael Sawan, Shell’s director of oil and gas exploration and production, described the deal with ConocoPhillips as “extremely compelling”, which is in line with the company’s “value-for-size” ratio. The money will be partly distributed to shareholders and partly used to strengthen the balance sheet.

under pronunciation pressure

in May Rule The court in The Hague also stated that Shell has a global responsibility to reduce carbon dioxide emissions more quickly and that it must act on it in the short term. By the end of 2030, carbon dioxide emissions should have fallen by a net 45 percent compared to 2019, the judge said.

Since then, Shell has been under pressure to sell the assets. It is not clear if this is the reason for selling the assets in the Permian Basin. The company did not make any statements about this in the press release.

In its letter, Shell emphasized that it had been supplying US customers with energy for more than a hundred years and that it also wanted to remain a leader in the country “in the decades to come”.