More than a decade after it unsuccessfully tried to take over Woodside Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) has finally sold off the bulk of its residual 23.1 per cent holding in Australia's leading petroleum producer.
Shell’s new chief executive, Ben van Beurden, had given an early indication that the Anglo-Dutch giant would confine its focus in Australia to directly owned assets, such as the Prelude LNG venture. Receipts of approximately $5.7bn (£3.35bn) will put Shell well down the road towards its divestment target of $15bn by the end of 2015, but it isn’t the only energy heavyweight trimming its sails. BG Group (BG.) has just agreed to sell its 62.8 per cent stake in the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) gas pipeline in the UK North Sea to Antin Infrastructure Partners for around £562m.
