Total Moves Ahead with Divestments
France's Total is pushing ahead with its $5bn divestment programme despite the market turbulence, announcing on April 7 that it had closed a sale in Brunei and signed an agreement to shed additional assets in Sierra Leone and Liberia for a total $400mn.
Total has completed the transfer of its 87% stake in the CA1 oil and gas block off Brunei to Anglo-Dutch Shell for $300mn, it said in a statement. CA1 covers a 5,850-km2 area in waters 1,000-2,500 metres deep. Total secured rights to the block back in 2002, but exploration activities were held up for years by a maritime border dispute between Brunei and Malaysia. The dispute was finally resolved in 2015. Other partners at CA1 include US-based Murphy Oil with 8% and Malaysia's Petronas with 5%.
Total has also struck a deal to sell its fuel marketing and services businesses in Liberia and Sierra Leone to local company Conex Oil and Gas Holdings. The businesses comprise a chain of 63 filling stations, general trade fuel sales and petroleum products import and storage operations. Total is currently Liberia's biggest fuel importer. The French major expects to close the $100mn sale in the second quarter of 2020, it said.
Total aims to shed a total of $5bn of assets in 2019 and 2020. By February this year it had completed around $3bn of divestments.
"These sales will contribute to Total’s ongoing divestment programme and demonstrate our ability to relentlessly highgrade our portfolio," CFO Jean-Pierre Sbraire said. "In the current context of low oil prices, these transactions support the action plan announced to weather the crisis."